LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 




UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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■ 



■ ■ 1 1 



J* 



SERMONS 



WILLIAM BACON STEVENS 

BISHOP OF THE PKOTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHUBCH 

DIOCESE OE PENNSYLVANIA 




NEW YORK 
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
1879 

7r 



Th* Library 
of Congress 

WASHISGTOH 



5X^37 



Copyright, 1879, 
By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY. 



PRESS OF 
J. J. LITTLE AND CO., 
IO ASTOR PLACE, NEW YORK. 



ST. JOHNLAND 
STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, 
SUFFOLK CO., N. Y. 



CONTENTS. 



I. — Love is of God 1-16 

" Love is of God." — i John iv. 7. 

II. — God's Ownership of Souls 17-27 

u Behold all souls are mine; — the soul that sinneth, it shall die." 
Ezekiel xviii. 4. 

III. — The Personal Presence of the Comforter 28-39 



"And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another 
Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of 
truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth Him not, 
neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth in you, 
and shall be in you."— John xiv. 16, 17. 



IV. — Delayed Mercies Resulting in Greater Glory to 

Christ 40-51 

"Therefore his sisters sent unto Him, saying, Lord, behold, he 
whom Thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, He said, This 
sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of 
God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her 
sister, and Lazarus."— John xi. 3-5. 

V. — Spiritual Death 52-62 

** For there was not a house where there was not one dead." 
Ex. xii. 30. 

VI. — The Almost Christian 63-77 

" Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be 
a Christian." — Acts xxvi. 28. 

VIL— Follow thg*j Me 78-87 

" What is that to thee ? follow thou me."— -John xxi. 22. 



iv 



CONTENTS. 



VIII. — The Missionary Woman 88-101 

"The woman then left her water-pot, and went her way into the 
city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things 
that ever I did : is not this the Christ ? Then they went out of the 
city, and came unto Him."— John iv. 28-30. 

IX. — The Book of Prayer for the House of Prayer 102-122 

« Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." 
Isaiah lvi. 7. 

X. — Living Stones made ready for the Heavenly Temple 123-133 

"And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made 
ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither ham- 
mer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while it was in 
building." — I Kings vi. 7. 



XL— Why so many Prayers are Unanswered 134- 1 45 

" O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in 
the night season, and am not silent." — Psalm xxii. 2. 

XII. — The Atonement 146-158 

"A Lamb as it had been slain." — Rev. v. 6. 

XIII. —Jesus our Refuge and Rest 159-169 

" And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind ; and a 
covert from the tempest ; as rivers of water in a dry place ; as the 
shadow of a great rock in a weary land." — Isaiah xxxii. 2. 

XIV. — Waiting and Watching 170-179 

" Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye 
yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord." — Luke xii. 35, 36. 

XV. — Opportunities Lost; Opportunities Improved 180-190 

" Woe unto us ! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the 
evening are stretched out."— Jer. vi. 4. 

"They constrained Him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward 
evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with 
them." — Luke xxiv. 29. 

XVI. — The Answer to the Bereaved Heart 191-201 



" Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepul- 
chre ? " — Mark .xvi. 3. 



CONTENTS. v 

XVII. — Waiting for Jesus 202-212 

"And it came to pass that when Jesus was returned, the people 
gladly received Him; for they were all waiting for Him." — Luke 
viii. 40. 

XVIII. — Can we now Lean on Jesus' Bosom 213-222 

" Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, 
whom Jesus loved."— John xiii. 23. 

XIX. — The Lambeth Conference of 1878 223-238 

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto 
me." — St. John xii. 32. 

XX. — The Law of Spiritual Growth 239-249 

" Exercise thyself unto godliness." — I Timothy iv. 7. 

XXI. — Sins of the Tongue 250-264 



" And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity : so is the tongue 
among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on 
fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind 
of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is 
tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: but the tongue can no man 



tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."— James iii. 6-8. 

XXII. — In Athens Alone 265-276 

"And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens." — 
Acts xvii. 15. 

XXIII. — The Wrath of the Lamb 277-288 

" Hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and 
from the wrath of the Lamb." — Revelation vi. 16. 

XXIV. — Parental Responsibility 289-300 

" Let me not see the death of the child." — Gen. xxi. 16. 

XXV. — Is there Reason or Profit in Prayer? 301-311 



"What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? and what 
profit should there be if we pray unto Him ? "—Job xxi. 15. 



SERMONS. 



i. 

LOVE IS OF GOD. 
"Love is of God."— i John iv. 7. 

No writer gives us such lofty ideas of love as St. 
John. His First General Epistle is an epitome of the 
whole philosophy of love, human and divine; and all 
that subsequent authors have done has been to amplify 
and interpret the principles enunciated by the beloved 
disciple. 

Love is the most powerful and influential of human 
passions. It has been analyzed and described by more 
minds, and has engrossed more hearts, than any other 
affection. Yet the majority of writers have failed to 
apprehend the true character of love, and have busied 
themselves in describing some of its turbid and earth- 
polluted streams, flowing between the banks of human 
selfishness, instead of rising to the fountain-source of 
the passion, and showing us its existence as it fills the 
bosom of the eternal God. 

St. John takes us up to this fountain-head, and, in 
the words of the text, shows us the origin of all affec- 
tion, when he says, " Love is of God." 

The point which I wish to illustrate is, that all the 
love in the universe is the gift of God. The proposi- 



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LOVE IS OF GOD. 



tion, as tlins stated, is a very simple one; but it involves 
consequences of the most interesting and responsible 
character. Let us first unfold the principle, and then 
ascertain some of its resulting consequences. 

In another part of this love-filled epistle, St. John 
utters the sublime truth, " God is love"; and, by many, 
this has been considered as equivalent to the declara- 
tion of the text, " Love is of God." This, however, is 
not so. When the apostle tells us that " God is love," 
he designs to say, not that God has this attribute and 
no other, — not that He has this attribute paramount to 
others ; for, as the attributes of any mind must partake 
of the character of the mind which exercises them, so 
the attributes of God must partake of the essence of 
God, and be in all aspects, therefore, infinite and divine : 
no one, therefore, can be more than infinite, no one less 
than divine. Each attribute — His truth, His power, 
His wisdom, and the like — must stand on the same 
footing as His love, and be equally great and glorious. 
But, by the expression u God is love," St. John evi- 
dently wishes to convey to us the idea that love is the 
great motive power of the Divine Being. Love is that 
which shapes and guides all His attributes; so that 
each is manifested under the working of love, and each 
directed to the securing of love. 

We can imagine, indeed, that God might possess cer- 
tain attributes without that of love, as, for example, 
power, wisdom, holiness, truth : but what a fearful God 
would He be, if almighty power was not guided by 
love ; if infinite wisdom, in its contrivings and legisla- 
tions, was not pervaded by infinite love ; if perfect holi- 
ness was only a cold and ice-like purity, devoid of the 
warmth and redolence of love ; if truth was the mere 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



3 



mechanical utterance of right by lips on which sat no 
law of kindness, from a heart which had in it no pulsa- 
tion of love ! Love, then, is the affection of the Divine 
Being, which, not operating by itself, permeates and in- 
fluences each attribute, moves them in harmony, throws 
over them the beauty of holiness, and thus quickens 
into action, controls in motion, and guides to its des- 
tined end, all the workings of Jehovah; and, because 
every attribute is thus set in motion by love, hence we 
say, "God is love." 

But when the apostle says, "Love is of God," he 
means something different from the truth just unfolded. 
He looks at love from another stand-point. He marks 
it in its human manifestations ; and beholding it not so 
much as a great and original attribute of the Most 
High, but as seen in daily life, ramifying through all 
the grades and conditions of society, and observing its 
power, its workings, its sway in man's heart, he traces 
the affection to its source, and says, "Love is of God." 

When God created man, He made him in His own 
likeness, — not in the likeness of His power to do all 
things, or His wisdom to know all things ; but of His 
love and of His holiness, — those purely moral qualities 
in which he could alone be fashioned in the divine like- 
ness; and so man was created lovely, lovable, loving, 
and pure. 

In the fall which brought in sin and death upon our 
race, and a curse upon the ground, man was morally 
wrecked. He lost the image of God, in which he was 
made; and he no longer was, to the extent which he 
had been, lovely^ lovable, loving, and pure. He was a 
guilty and a polluted being ; and all his powers of mind 
and heart were perverted and debased by sin. 



4 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



While, however, man made a total loss of holiness, 
there was not a total loss of love. In mercy to our race, 
God permitted this affection to continue, — not, indeed, 
in its original beauty or force or purity, but still to 
exist, though shorn of its glory, as the great happiness- 
creating power of mankind ; so that to the exercise of 
this one affection, more than to any other, is the world 
indebted for all that remains to it of Eden's bliss before 
man was driven from Eden's bower. 

A few familiar illustrations will fully establish this 
point. 

Take the first love which one human being ever felt 
for another, — conjugal love, — and mark how that is of 
God. 

When God formed Eve, He brought her to Adam; 
and He implanted in them such love for each other, 
that not only did Adam say, "This is now bone of my 
bones, and flesh of my flesh," but henceforth it was or- 
dained that the twain united by this conjugal relation 
should be one flesh ; that is, that they should live and 
act and feel as a moral unit, having one interest, one 
heart, one aim. Thus also St. Paul writes: "So ought 
men to love their wives, as their own bodies. He that 
loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet 
hated his own flesh ; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, 
even as the Lord the Church." 

In making the woman out of the rib of man ; in unit- 
ing them, by the act of God himself, in holy wedlock ; 
in proclaiming, that, by such a relation, the man and 
the woman are no more twain, but one flesh ; in inspir- 
ing prophets and apostles to urge men to love their 
wives as their own bodies; and in likening the union 
of husband and wife to the mystical union which exists 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



5 



between Christ and the Church, — God has indicated, by 
the most direct, solemn, and authoritative way which 
infinite wisdom could devise, that He was the author 
and giver of conjugal affection; and therefore, in re- 
spect of that emotion of the heart which is the source of 
more joy, the light of more dwellings, the comforter of 
more sorrows, the strengthener of more weakness, the 
sustainer of more hope, than any other passion, we say 
that it springs direct from heaven ; so that, in very truth, 
this conjugal love is of God. 

Take the second love which grew up on earth, — 
parental love, — and see how this is of God. We say, in 
common parlance, that it is natural for a man to love 
his child, and that it is unnatural for him to dislike him. 
But what constitutes the naturalness of this love, other 
than the fact that God implanted it in parents' hearts, 
as a part of their moral constitution ? A parent's heart 
is the peculiar workmanship of God. He has so fitted it 
up with sensibilities and affections, and so adjusted these 
to the necessities of infancy and childhood, that all the 
needs, physical, mental, and moral, of the babe and the 
youth, are fully provided for in the love which God has 
placed, as a controlling power, in the father's and the 
mother's heart. What mightiness of affection is lodged 
in a father's love ! How it nerves him to toil, and to 
spend and be spent, for his children ! How it fills him 
with glad thoughts of home, and proud hopes of the 
future ! And who can speak aright of a mother's love ? 
— its depth, its force, its purity, its unselfishness, its 
long-suffering, its self-sacrificing character. Poets have 
essayed to portray it in verse, and sentimentalists to 
describe it in prose ; but words feebly illustrate its na- 
ture, or enable us to compute its worth. Yet all the 



6 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



happiness which is spread over the face of society by 
parental love ; which permeates each family group, each 
home; which links heart with heart, though sundered 
by continents and oceans ; which draws out and gives 
back affection, like the sun which exhales the vapor 
from the earth, only to return it in dew and rain to 
beautify and fertilize it; all the joy and peace and com- 
fort which springs from parental affection, — is the direct 
gift of our heavenly Father; for this love is of God. 

Take the third kind of affection, which, in the order 
of time, rises in the human breast, — the love of children 
for parents, — and we shall find the same truth holds 
here also. Before the infant mind can reason, or under- 
stand its relations, or even appreciate the kindness 
shown to it, there is felt the goings-forth of love ; and 
the little delicate fibres of affection, each slender, per- 
haps, as the gossamer thread that "floats idly in the 
summer air," strengthen with the growth of days, be- 
come interlaced and braided with others ; and thus the 
child, the youth, the adult, is moored to the parent's 
heart by cables of love, which only life-wrecking tem- 
pests can part or loosen. Suppose that there was no 
love in children's hearts for parents until they came to 
years of discretion, what a dreary waste of unrewarded 
toil and self-sacrificing drudgery would be the season of 
childhood and youth ! What would a household be, de- 
void of children's love? What would a parent's heart 
be, if its outgoings of affection found no response in 
prattling boys and gentle girls ? And how much of the 
sunlight of home would become darkness, if the inde- 
scribable ways and means which evince filial love were 
blotted out from mind and memory and heart ? Filial 
love constitutes a large part of human happiness, and 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



7 



pervades every class and condition of our race; and 
as it could never, by its very nature, create itself, be- 
cause it is begotten before reason and judgment begin 
their workings, it must be divine. And so we say of 
this elevating affection, — filial love, — this love is of 
God. 

The same line of remark applies also to that love of 
kindred which constitutes a part of man's moral being. 
The hundred social circles which this love of kindred 
creates, and which, like so many cogged wheels, catch 
into and rotate each other, diffusing joy and happiness 
over the habitations of men, are the product of this 
kindred love. And this love is of God ; for He it is 
"who setteth the solitary in families," who groups men 
into social circles, and, bestowing upon His creatures 
affections, calls out these affections in the various forms 
of social and domestic life. 

Once more : look at love in the form of philanthropy. 
Here we behold it breaking over the dikes and channels 
of conjugal, family, or social affection, and spreading 
away, like the Nile in its overflow, until it covers the 
entire lowlands of our race. This love of man for his 
race is mostly the product of the religion of Jesus Christ. 
Before that era, the Jew loved the Jew, the Persian loved 
the Persian, the Roman loved the Roman ; but, beyond 
the boundaries of one's nation, all were barbarians, dogs, 
and enemies. There was no expansive, world-embra- 
cing love in the heart of man ; there were no broadly de- 
vised and widely applied schemes for the amelioration 
of woe, ignorance, and sin; there were no projects for 
spreading knowledge, civilization, and religion to re- 
gions benighted, savage, and idolatrous ; there were no 
outgoing affections of men, throwing their tendrils of 



8 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



mercy around the world, and clasping the debased and 
the vile in the arms of its heart-throbbing philanthropy. 

This earth-encompassing and man-elevating love is 
of God. It is because the Bible tells us that we have 
one common Father, one common Saviour, one common 
Comforter, one common salvation, and one common 
earthly destiny, — the grave ; it is because the Bible puts 
us all on one platform, as sinners, and seeks to raise us 
all to one common heaven, and puts into our hands the 
instrumentalities and agencies for this lifting-up of our 
race, and bids us use them in the name and strength of 
J ehovah, — that we find stirring within us this love of 
our race, this desire for its advancement, this putting 
forth of effort for their regeneration, this Bible-spread- 
ing and Christ-preaching and gospel-publishing spirit, 
that seeks to enclose the world in the meshes of the 
gospel-net, and then draw it to the land, where Jesus 
stands waiting to receive and bless it. 

Every blessing, then, which has flowed to our race 
through the building of hospitals, asylums, and elee- 
mosynary institutions ; through societies for the diffu- 
sion of popular education and wholesome knowledge ; 
through the agencies of the Church, in its manifold in- 
stitutions for the circulation of the Bible and tracts, the 
establishment of schools and colleges, the publishing 
of papers and religious books, and the preaching of 
the word, — dates its origin in the influence of the con- 
straining love of Christ upon the heart; and thus, in 
very deed, this love of our race, this philanthropy, is 
of God. 

Now, what would earth be without these various 
kinds of love ? What, without philanthropy ? It would 
be a mass of conglomerate selfishness, — a world of war, 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



9 



of antagonistic states, of cruel governments, of social 
discord, and of domestic misery. There would be no 
hospitals and infirmaries ; no asylums for the orphan, 
the widow, the outcast ; no retreats for the aged and 
destitute ; no homes for friendless children and disabled 
industry ; no associations for charity and mutual aid ; no 
societies for the amelioration of crime, disease, suffering, 
and the many ills w^hich afflict our race ; no boards of 
missions, spreading their network of divine truth over 
our own and foreign lands ; no institutions for the circu- 
lation of Bibles, tracts, and a sanctified literature; no 
churches ; no Sunday-schools : but all would be blot- 
ted out ; and intense selfishness, with its consequent 
envyings, jealousies, and hatreds, would rule in the 
ascendant. 

What would earth be without this love of kindred, so 
that, along the ties of affinity and blood, there thrilled 
no electric sensations of social love? The interlacing 
bonds of family with family would be sundered ; society 
would be disintegrated, and resolved into its individual 
elements, save only when force or interest made a union 
of what was else repulsive and undesired. 

What would the world be without filial or parental 
love? A family where there was parental authority 
without parental love, and where filial obedience was 
required without filial affection rendered, would not be 
a home, but a prison : the parents would be jailers ; the 
children would be as felons ; and the law of brute force 
alone would bind them in one household of domestic 
tyranny. 

And above all, wlrat would earth be without conjugal 
love ; — if there was no heart-union between man and 
wife; no love to cheer, soften, and irradiate the lot of 



10 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



woman ; no responsive affection to nerve and lift Tip and 
make happy the soul of man ; — if the marriage tie was 
only a bond of interest or of lust, — a bond galling as the 
manacle of the convict in the chain-gang, and each day 
made more chafing by the bickerings of hate and the 
collisions of selfishness ? 

It is scarcely possible even to imagine a world devoid 
of love, where all that is genial and loving and sympa- 
thetic ; all that welds together households and families 
and society ; all that imparts the highest earthly pleas- 
ure; all that sweetens toil, and soothes care, and com- 
forts sorrow, and solaces bereavement; all that raises 
man above lust and sordidness, and a mere sensuous 
existence ; all that typifies and illustrates, feebly indeed, 
yet truly, the purity and bliss of heaven, — should be 
completely blotted out. It would be as if some angel 
of the pit should pass through this world, and turn its 
green fields into sand-wastes, its forest-crowned and 
picturesque hills into bald rock, its floral kingdom into 
bramble-land, its dancing, leaping, silvery waters into 
asphaltic streams, its exquisitely tinged clouds and its 
brilliant sunsets into Cimmerian gloom, its thousand 
bird-melodies into discordant screams ; and, rending into 
tatters the robe of beauty, which, like a bridal vail, 
covers without concealing, and covers only to en- 
hance, the loveliness of nature, should force its di- 
vinely-moulded form into a tunic of sackcloth, and 
cover its face with a cowl of darkness. 

No, not even this would be as sad, as full of mis- 
ery, as would this world be if each fountain of affection 
were sealed up, and no love were to pervade, warm, 
cheer, beautify, ennoble, or make godlike, the human 
race. 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



11 



Seeing, then, that with all man's sins and ill-doings, 
with all God's punishments and curses, He has con- 
tinued to us this love, the question arises, Have you 
ever seriously thought how much you ought to love 
God, who has given you the inestimable boon of human 
affection? Can you sum up your debt to Him for this 
one gift? Can you ever sufficiently praise Him for its 
continuance and blessing? 

Yet, when man rebelled against God, and cast off His 
sway, and virtually said to Him, "We desire not a 
knowledge of Thy ways/' God might most justly have 
stripped him of love, and left him to the curse of the 
loveless and the unloved. It was His love to us which 
caused Him to continue love in us. There is no love 
among the fallen angels. There is no love in hell. 
There is authority there ; and fear, and servile obe- 
dience, and defiance, and tongue-gnawing pain, and 
smoke of endless torment, there: but there is no love 
there ; and God, who cleansed the old world's sins by a 
deluge, and purged the foul cities of the plain with fire 
and brimstone, and stayed the heaven-climbing aims of 
the Babelites by a confusion of tongues, could as easily 
have plucked out love from man's heart, and left him to 
his sins and his love-shorn existence, as He could have 
inflicted any other punishment. But He did not: He 
continued to him love; and hence all the love that 
exists, and that blesses man in every relation and con- 
dition of life, is of God. 

This is a truth but little considered ; yet it presents 
an aspect of God's character which is full of mercy, and 
which demands boundless thanks. We revel in this 
love ; yet how heedless of its Author ! We expend this 
love upon our fellow-creatures ; yet how little is given 



12 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



to God! And it is a grave question, winch I put to the 
conscience of each person, How can you refuse to exer- 
cise towards God the affection which is His by right of 
creation, and which, in its outgoings, constitutes the 
supreme felicity of earth ? Can you give a good reason 
for not loving God ? He is a God of love ; and, as you 
love earthly beings in proportion to their loveliness, so 
should you love Him who is all love, and who has mani- 
fested His love by the most wonderful displays and the 
most marvellous sacrifices. If it is dishonorable to re- 
fuse gratitude for services rendered; if it is base to be 
the recipients and users of continual favors, and yet 
make no acknowledgments, — then must you condemn 
yourselves, for turning away from the love of God, for 
using the affections He bestows for selfish ends, and 
giving no thanks or glory to Him who made you a 
being susceptible of loving and being loved. 

It was a most forcible appeal which St. Paul made to 
the Eomans, when he asked, "Despisest thou the riches 
of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not 
knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to re- 
pentance ? " It was an equally strong appeal which he 
made to the same Church, when He said, "I beseech 
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye 
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable 
unto God, which is your reasonable service." And it is 
in the spirit of these apostolic appeals that I ask, Can 
such exhibitions of love on the part of God call out from 
you no love to Him ? 

There is one other aspect of the subject which I must 
touch upon, though only touch. 

Wondrous as is the fact, that, notwithstanding our 
sins, God still continued to us human love, and highly 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



13 



exalting as that fact is of His grace and mercy, it is not 
so great a display of His love as that manifested in pro- 
viding for man's redemption. 

In those few but majestic words of St. John, " God so 
loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life," we have the faint outline of a 
love which we can never fully understand, because it is 
an eternal love, an infinite love, — a love which only 
God can feel, and only God describe. 

So impressed was the apostle with this, that he 
says, "Herein is love, not that we loved Him, but 
that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propi- 
tiation for our sins." As if He had said, It matters not 
where else you see love, or what else you see of love : 
herein is love. And the love herein displayed, in this 
prior love to us, in this sacrifice made for us, in this 
gift bestowed upon us, in these blessings oifered to 
us, — this love takes precedence of all other love, even 
as God, who shows it, is higher than all the gods of 
heathen mythology, or than all the imaginings of hea- 
then philosophy. 

We have not time now to give even a linear sketch 
of this divine love, as seen in the reciprocal affection of 
God the Father and God the Son ; as beheld in the love 
evinced in the gift of the Holy Ghost ; as shown in the 
life and sufferings and death of the Son of God ; as 
witnessed in the mighty preparation whereby was ush- 
ered in this work of love ; as viewed in the love of 
Christ to the Church ; or as heard of in God's word, in 
connection with those provisions of glory and greatness 
with which He endows His saints in the kingdom of 
heaven. 



14 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



This love of God has provided for you an atonement 
for your sins; the full and eternal benefit of which, in 
bestowing pardon and peace, are offered to you on the 
terms of faith in Jesus. Will you reject this blood- 
bought reconciliation? This love has given you a di- 
vine Saviour, to save you from your sins, and to be the 
Prophet to teach you, the Priest to sacrifice for you, and 
the King to reign over you; so that your salvation is 
complete in Him. Will you slight this Eedeemer? This 
love has bestowed upon you the Holy Ghost, to convict 
you of sin, to guide you to Christ, to bow your else un- 
bending will, to teach you all truth, to sanctify your 
soul, and to be the Comforter of your heart. Will you 
do despite to this Spirit? This love has revealed for 
you a word of truth, — the Holy Scriptures, which are 
able to make you wise unto salvation. Will you heed 
its holy teachings ? This love has surrounded you with 
the means of grace, — the Church, which is Christ's mys- 
tical body; the ministry, which is of Christ's ordaining; 
the sacraments, which are of Christ's institution; the 
preached word, which is the testimony of Jesus. Will 
you misimprove these instrumentalities of grace, and go 
down to eternal death from under the very droppings 
of the sanctuary? There is nothing which your soul 
needs for its peace and happiness on earth, for which 
this divine love has not made ample provision; and 
there is nothing which it can ask for or require, to its 
full enjoyment in the world to come, which has not been 
stored up for it in those mansions which the pierced 
hands of the loving Saviour have prepared for his re- 
deemed in heaven. 

Would that I could impress upon all those who are 
unreconciled to God by faith in Jesus Christ, that they 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



15 



are fighting, not against God's stern decrees of justice, 
not against His almighty power, not against His in- 
finite wisdom, but against His love; that the warfare of 
their souls discharges itself into the heart of J ehovah ; 
and that the enmity of the unrenewed man is directed 
against the love of the God of love ! 

Kemember also that one of the most fearful elements 
in the condemnation of the lost is not that God's jus- 
tice smites them with legal power, not that omnipotence 
holds them in its almighty grasp, not that wisdom ap- 
proves the decision which consigns them to woe, nor 
that holiness requires their exclusion from heaven : but 
that they rejected the overtures of love ; that its divine 
movings in the grace of God the Father, in the death of 
Christ, in the pleadings of the Spirit, were in vain ; that 
the mighty affections of God were so slighted ; and that 
they dared to trample under foot God's beloved Son, and 
do despite unto the Spirit of His grace. 

And, as the remembrance of a slighted love will be 
one of the most fearful instruments of eternal sorrow, 
so an accepted love of God in Christ will be one of the 
most joyous elements of eternal bliss. The happiness 
of heaven lies not in freedom from pain and want and 
woe ; not in exemption from change and death ; nor 
does it consist in its exultant songs, its perpetual day, 
its mental enlargement, its intellectual satisfaction, its 
lofty tone of thought, its companionship with the angels 
and archangels. The great bliss of heaven lies in the 
presence of love. The saints' hearts are full of love ; the 
angels' hearts are full of love. Every thing that is done 
there, and said there, and thought there, is influenced by 
love. Love pervades that world, and infolds it in an 
atmosphere of divine affectkm; for He whose name is 



16 



LOVE IS OF GOD. 



love sitteth upon the throne, and pours out, from the 
fountain of His infinite affection, all the love which 
warms the inhabitants of that land of glory: for there 
is not an affection manifested by saint or seraph, which 
is not traceable up to this fountain, and of which we 
can not say, "This love is of God." 



II. 



GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS. 

" Behold, all souls are mine ; — the soul that sinneth, it shall die." 
Ezekiel xviii. 4. 

This passage contains the statement of two facts which 
have a most important bearing on man's moral destiny — 
1st, That our souls belong to God; 2d, That He will pun- 
ish every sinning soul. 

That our souls belong to God is theoretically gen- 
erally conceded, yet, in its full truth, it is but little 
acknowledged, and exerts but little influence on our 
hearts and lives. Yet few truths are more important 
or deserve deeper consideration. Let us give to them, 
then, at this time, our calm and patient thought. 

" Behold, all souls are mine." Who speaks this? 
The Lord God. Here, then, is a distinct declaration of 
His right of property in the souls of men. Upon what, 
then, is this right based ? There is no branch of human 
jurisprudence which is more abstruse or extensive than 
the law of property. For there is such a variety of 
kinds of property — as property in possession and prop- 
erty in action ; so many degrees of right in property — as 
the right absolute, and the right qualified; so many 
titles to property — as by occupancy, prerogative, suc- 
cession, gift, etc., and these various points open up 
so many collateral questions *which ramify into every 



18 



GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS. 



department of human rights, both of persons and of 
things, that claims to property are the most fruitful 
source of litigation; and the establishment of these 
claims taxes the keenest subtlety of the legal profes- 
sions and has evoked the profoundest research into 
the primordial rights of man from the ablest jurists 
of the world. 

The right of a man to any property is ever subject to 
the modifications or changes to which all human legis- 
lation is liable, and which at times, have overturned all 
human government. There is, then, no absolute and 
unqualified right of man to any property which may 
not be interfered with, or destroyed; for there is noth- 
ing stable this side of heaven. Such is the weakness 
and insecurity of human rights to human possessions. 

You may say a man has a right to do what he will 
with his property; for example, he may give it away, 
or keep it, as he will. Not so ! With his rights are in- 
terlaced the rights of others, and the rights of God. 
Human laws and divine laws have thrown their meshes 
around each man, and he can not act irrespective of the 
will of the law, or of the will of God, without violating 
his obligations to both. He must adjust his rights to the 
rights of others, and to the claims of God, and hence his 
will is fettered, and can never act in an absolute and 
independent manner. So also of man's control over 
himself, or others. He can never act as he will. His 
control is always a control under law, limited by stat- 
utes, human or divine. He can not do what he will 
with his person, if it interferes with the rights of other 
persons; his line of duty is prescribed by many legal 
limitations, ever keeping in check his will and ever guid- 
ing his every step. 



GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS. 



19 



But when we turn from the rights of man to the 
rights of God, what a contrast! God's right of prop- 
erty in these souls is not derived, as man's is, but origi- 
nal ; His, not by conveyance from another, but by right 
of creation. He made man out of dust ; He made the 
dust out of which man was made; and, having made 
man in his physical being, He then breathed into him 
" the breath of life," and " man became a living soul." 
Here, then, is the absolute and unqualified right of God, 
by virtue of the act of creation, to the souls of men. 
There is no right behind this right; it is the primor- 
dial right of the Creator to the creature which he 
has made by the word of His power. But this soul 
which God has breathed into man is perpetually con- 
served and sustained by God. God did not breathe 
into man the breath of life and then leave the spirit 
which he has thus imparted to take care of itself. 
No; He daily, hourly preserves that soul, ministers to 
it the elements of its life, and sustains it in the be- 
ing in whom He breathed it. But for this perpetual 
conservation, the soul would cease to be, and man 
would cease to be ; and hence by this right, therefore, 
as well as by the right of creation, God can truly say, 
" All souls are mine." 

As the Creator of the soul, and the Upholder of the 
soul, God can do what He will with the soul. There are 
no codes of law to guide Him, no interlacings of other 
rights with His right to fetter or restrain His will. On 
the contrary, His will is His own law, and hence it is 
said, " He doeth according to His will in the army of 
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth." His 
will no one can question, no one control ; it is infinite as 
His own nature, holy as His owr^ essence, and hence the 



20 



GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS. 



law, which is but an expression of His will, is said to 
be "holy and just and good." Here, then, is a right 
of property in us beyond any thing which human laws 
can know or impart: God's right to the souls of men 
by creation, by preservation, and by governmental con- 
trol ; a right inalienable, absolute, and eternal. 

Now if you will compare for a moment the tenure by 
which you hold any property or right, with the tenure 
by which God claims your soul as belonging to Him, 
you will see at a glance, that the highest and absolute 
rights of men are as worthless and defective titles, com- 
pared with the true original right of our divine Creator. 
Your right is given to you by others: God's right is 
self-derived. Your right rests upon deeds and convey- 
ances, the whole value of which resides in certain legal 
technicalities, or official seals, or judicial records. His 
right in the sole proprietorship of a creating and an 
npholding God. Your rights are restricted by other 
rights; your will fettered by other wills; your tenure 
morticed in with other tenures. His rights are based 
on the counsels of His own will — the one sole control- 
ling will in the universe. How truly, how sublimely, 
then, may He, the Creator and Upholder of all things, 
sitting on the throne of heaven, declare, "Behold, all 
souls are mine " ! 

"All souls." What a compass does this give to 
His spiritual proprietorship! All human souls are His. 
Every being who ever lived on this earth in whom God 
breathed the breath of an immortal spirit, belongs to 
God. The souls of all fallen angels are His. They have 
alienated themselves from God, cast off his authority, 
placed themselves in open rebellion to Him and His 
moral government, and are using the great powers 



GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS. 



21 



of mind with which they are endowed to thwart the 
divine will, and spread ruin and woe throughout the 
earth; yet they can not release themselves from the 
ownership of God. He has never vacated His right to 
their souls. They are His, despite their rebellion; His, 
despite their sin ; nor can they ever free themselves from 
the absolute right of God to do what He will with His 
own. 

The souls of tlie dtceUers in heaven belong to God. Each 
and every order of spiritual existences, from the lowest 
who waits before the throne, to the tallest archangel in 
the hierarchy of heaven, belongs to God; for by Him, 
says the apostle, "were all things created, which are in 
heaven and in earth; whether they be thrones, or do- 
minions, or principalities, or powers. " 

What a mighty proprietorship is this ! to be able to 
stand on this world, and say of each generation of its 
hundreds of millions of beings, as they pass in a pro- 
cession sixty centuries long, " Behold, all these souls 
are mine." To stand like Uriel in the sun, and say 
of the thronging myriads which inhabit the planets 
of this solar system, as they sweep their swift orbits 
around the central light, " Behold, all these souls are 
mine." 

To go down to the gates of the world of darkness, 
where the angels " which kept not their first estate 
are reserved under chains" for the judgment, and say, 
in the hearing of these fallen spirits, causing each to 
tremble as it is uttered, "Behold, all these souls are 
mine." 

To sit upon the throne of heaven, surrounded by the 
countless throng of angels, and say, " Behold, all these 
are mine." 



22 



GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS. 



Oh, surely, He who can say this must be the great 
and glorious God ! The question now arises, For what 
purpose did God make these souls? Let God Himself 
answer. By the mouth of Isaiah He declares, " I have 
created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I 
have made him"; and again, He says, "This people 
have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my 
praise." 

God's glory is, then, the great object of man's cre- 
ation ; and the chief end of man is to glorify God. The 
ownership of our souls being then vested in God, and 
the object of the creation of those souls being God's 
glory, there result from these two facts certain infer- 
ences which are of most weighty import. 

The first inference is, That man holds his soul in trust 
from God for the use of God. God has not given you a 
soul to do what you please with it, irrespective of Him. 
He has, indeed, implanted in you a will ; but with that 
will He has also given two laws, — the law of conscience, 
and the moral law of Sinai ; and that will must guide all 
its volitions according to these laws, and any breach of 
either is known to, and punishable, by God. You are 
held responsible for every act of that will, and each 
putting forth of that will in opposition to God's will 
is sin. 

In human law, where a person holds property belong- 
ing to another, in trust for certain purposes, he is bound 
to adhere strictly to the terms of his trusteeship ; and 
nothing short of the power which constituted or recog- 
nized him a trustee, can discharge him of his obligation, 
or change the terms of his trust. Each deviation, there- 
fore, in the use of the property from the original design 
is a breach of trust highly criminal, and attended with 



GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS. 



23 



human disgrace; yet how many there are who would 
scorn to pervert from its original use a trust estate, real 
or personal ; who would die, sooner than disgrace their 
names by untrustworthy acts, who do, every day, use 
God's souls, with which they are put in trust, in doing 
and thinking, in feeling and loving, persons and ob-. 
jects, hateful to Him, and insulting to His glory. 

The terms of trusteeship inscribed on each soul are — 
"Occupy till I come." Occupy the powers, the affec- 
tions, the sensibilities, the will of this soul for me. Oc- 
cupy as my steward, for my glory ; and whenever these 
souls are used for any purposes contrary to God's will, 
then is there in you a great breach of moral trust, and 
that is sin. 

But not only is there a breach of trust in thus mis- 
using the soul with which you are placed in trust, there 
is also involved in such conduct, absolute treason and 
rebellion. 

God says your soul is His, consequently He has a 
right to rule over it and receive its fealty as its gov- 
ernor and king; but you cast aside His rule, and give 
your fealty and obedience to God's enemy. Is not this 
treason, rebellion ? Writers on constitutional and civil 
law tell us, that it is high treason where a man is adhe- 
rent to the king's enemies ; and do you not adhere to 
God's arch enemy? Christ declares, "He that is not 
with me is against me." Locke, in his work on Civil 
Government, says, "Rebellion is an opposition not to 
persons, but authority which is founded in the constitu- 
tion and laws of the government." Are you not oppo- 
sing yourself both to the person and authority of God; 
rebelling against His divine sovereignty, and breaking, 
day by day, the great and foundation laws of His king- 



24 GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS. 

dom ? Adjudging your conduct then by the plain prin- 
ciples of human law, you must stand charged with re- 
bellion against God, in opposing yourself to His rightful 
authority, and with high treason against your divine 
King, in adhering to, and aiding and comforting, His 
enemy, the Prince of Darkness. There is no possible 
escape from these conclusions. They are the verdict of 
conscience, of reason, of revelation ; and by this verdict 
you will be sentenced at the day of judgment. 

But we have not yet done with this inference that you 
hold your souls in trust for God; for your conduct in 
withholding your souls from Him is not only a breach 
of trust, not only treason, not only rebellion, but it is 
absolute robbery of God. If you keep from God, what 
belongs to God, is it not robbery? God thinks so, 
for He charged His people of old with robbery, when 
they withheld from Him the service and love which 
was His due. By the mouth of the prophet Malachi 
He asks, " Will a man rob God ? Yet ye have robbed 
me." " But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee ? 
In tithes and offerings." " Ye are cursed with a curse: 
for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." If 
those who withheld "tithes and offerings" robbed God, 
how much more those who withhold the love and devo- 
tion of their souls ? 

Now is it not strange that while, if you are honest, 
you are forced to confess that you occupy this position, 
you yet feel no dishonor or disgrace concerning it. I 
speak to you who are men of probity and honor, who 
would eat the crust of poverty sooner than betray a 
human trust — feel you no sense of shame in betraying 
the divine trust which God has placed in your charge ? 
I speak to you men of patriotism, who would shed your 



GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS. 



25 



blood sooner than join the enemies of your country or 
foment rebellion against the government which protects 
you — feel you no compunctious smiting of conscience, 
no goaclings of remorse, at your treason in adhering 
to the enemy of all righteousness, in being a child and 
follower and servant of him who plotted rebellion in 
heaven, who plotted rebellion on earth, and who is ever 
waging war with God ? I speak to you men of honesty 
and business integrity, who would scorn to do an act 
of fraud, who would beg, sooner than rob — feel you no 
sense of shame in thus robbing God of the love and 
service and devotion of your souls ? That love which 
should be God's, you give to another ; that mind which 
should be used for God, you use for another ; that ser- 
vice which should be God's, you give to another. 

This brings us to the second inference which is — that 
all misuse of this trust is sin. God requires us to love 
Him with all ovft soul; this, He says, is the first and 
great commandment. Each want of conformity to this 
law is sin, for the apostle distinctly states, " Sin is a 
transgression (or want of conformity to) of the law." 
Each soul, then, which withholds itself 'from God, does, 
by that act, break the first and great commandment, 
and consequently commits sin. And now, what does 
God in the text say of such sinning soul? "The soul 
that sinneth, it shall die." 

What a fearful doom is this! Yet it is the doom 
which the owner of the soul pronounces upon every 
soul which spurns His ownership and does not render 
Him true and faithful worship. What is meant by this 
death of the soul, human thought can not understand ; 
because we know not what man loses when he loses 
heaven, what man suffers when l^e enters hell. The 



26 



GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS. 



two great elements of this death of the soul are — 1st, 
The absence of all that constitutes everlasting life ; 2d, 
The presence of every thing that constitutes everlasting 
despair. There is forever present to the soul, the con- 
sciousness of this its twofold misery. The death of the 
soul does not deprive it of its consciousness — it is ever 
conscious, ever sensitive, ever active. It is dead, in- 
deed, as the apostle states, in trespasses and sin. Dead 
to all influences of spiritual joy and peace. Dead to all 
enjoyments of eternal bliss in heaven. Dead to all love 
to God and things holy and divine. There is no living 
joy in such a soul, no active love, no calming peace, 
no animating hope. Like the Dead Sea, nothing pure, 
good, lovely, healthful, lives in it, moves over it, grows 
around it; it is a bleak, bare, stagnant, desolate pool 
of bitter sorrow, barren of every delight, and breeding 
only the noxious exhalations of a miasma, which ever 
wraps the soul as in the winding sheet of eternal death. 
When to this loss of heaven and this absence of every 
thing that can give life or joy, you add the other great 
element of spiritual death, — the presence and endur- 
ance of every woe which God has denounced against 
the wicked; the withdrawal of the light of His counte- 
nance and the restraining influences of the Holy Ghost ; 
the giving up of the soul to the full development of its 
own lusts and passions ; the ever-present goadings of a 
conscience fully awakened at the judgment, and never 
again to be seared or silenced ; the agonies of a remorse 
that ever preys upon the spirit with more than the tear- 
ing fangs of a Promethean vulture; and the ever-in- 
creasing guilt which grows up in that soul as the ages 
roll on, — then will you be able, in some measure, to 
know what is meant by the words of the text, "The 



GOD'S OWNERSHIP OF SOULS. 



27 



soul that sinneth, it shall die." Continue to withhold 
your souls from God, and that doom must be yours. 
But if, recognizing God's right to your soul, you give it 
to Him to be washed in the blood of Jesus, and to be 
robed in his spotless merit, then is your salvation sure, 
and the soul which God breathed into you at your birth 
will live forever a redeemed poul in heaven. 



III. 



THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 

" And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, 
that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the 
world can not receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; 
but ye know Him; for He dwelleth in you, and shall be in you." — 
John xiv. 16, 17. 

The true Christian has three Comforters, and each of 
them is divine. God the Father is styled by St. Paul, 
in his second epistle to the Corinthians, " the God of all 
comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation." God 
the Son, in the words of the text, speaks of Himself as 
one Comforter; and St. Paul tells us that u our consola- 
tion" or comfort "aboundeth by Christ." God the Holy 
Ghost is specifically named by Jesus Christ in several 
instances as u the Comforter," and His peculiar office as 
such is fully unfolded in the last discourse of our Lord 
to His disciples before His crucifixion. * Thus each per- 
son of the ever-blessed Trinity is a Comforter, divine in 
character, infinite in fulness, eternal in duration. There 
is, then, no true comfort or consolation, that the heart 
can desire, which may not be found in God the Father 
as the God of all comfort; in God the Son as the Para- 
clete with the Father; and in God the Holy Ghost as 
"the Comforter " who proceedeth from the Father and 
the Son. 



THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 29 



The Greek term Paracletos, here translated Comforter, 
and in another place translated Advocate, is peculiar to 
the writings of St. John, and is found in no other part 
of Scripture. We have no word in English which ex- 
actly corresponds to it in meaning ; that meaning being, 
according to the etymology of the word, 44 one called 
to be beside another." This explanation brings before 
us its true classical use, which " denotes a person who 
patronizes another in a judicial cause." It was the cus- 
tom in the ancient tribunals for the parties to appear in 
court attended by one or more of their most influential 
friends, who were called in Greek paracletes, in Latin 
advocates. These paracletes, or advocates, gave their 
friends — not from fee or reward, but from love and inter- 
est — the advantage of their personal presence, and the 
aid of their judicious counsel. They thus advised them 
what to do, what to say, spoke for them, acted in their 
behalf, made the cause of their friends their cause, stood 
by them and for them in the trials, difficulties, and dan- 
gers of their situation. In this sense our Lord is said 
by St. John to be our Paraclete — where he says, "We 
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the 
righteous" — One in heaven before God, who appears 
there in our behalf, patronizes our cause, urges our 
plea, ever living to u make intercession for us." 

While on earth, our Lord had counselled, advised, 
spoken for, and on behalf of, His disciples. They had 
looked to Him for aid, succor, comfort, truth, grace; 
and thus with Him ever at their side, He had been to 
them a paraclete, or advocate. He had most thorough- 
ly identified Himself with them, had taught them to 
pray, to preach, to live, to work miracles, and the mys- 
teries of the kingdom. But He was now to leave them. 



30 THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 



His bodily form was to be removed. Yet, with a sweet- 
ness of compassion peculiarly touching, He says, " I will 
not leave you comfortless," orphans, undefended, unad- 
vocated, unsustained. " It is expedient for you that I 
go away; but I will pray the Father, and He shall send 
you another Comforter, that He may abide with you 
forever." 

This " other" Comforter is the Holy Ghost, as our Lord 
declares in the twenty-sixth verse — " But the Comforter, 
which is the Holy Ghost." And this Comforter is said 
to proceed from the Father and the Son, sent in Christ's 
name, in answer to Christ's prayer, and to carry on 
Christ's work in the world, from which Christ was now 
to depart. 

Let us, then, consider the personal presence of the 
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, as the great and 
abiding blessing of the individual believer and of the 
Church. 

There can be no doubt that the believer now stands 
in a better relation to God, and Christ, and the mysteries 
of redemption, than those did who were privileged to 
behold our Lord with their bodily eyes, and hear His 
words, and touch His hands, and follow His person. 
This truth will be apparent if we analyze the office 
and nature of this Comforter as described by Christ 
Himself. 

What are the points where the soul of man needs 
comfort? or, to put the question in another form, What 
are the things which give real distress to the soul ? A 
sense of guilt; a consciousness of being under the curse; 
absence of the divine favor ; exposure to doubt and error ; 
uncertainty as to the future. Comfort comes to such an 
one, not by removing the sense of guilt, but by implant- 



THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 31 



ing a hope of pardon. Comfort comes to one lying 
under the curse of the law, by showing him that that 
curse is borne by another, and he is exempt from its in- 
fliction. Comfort comes to one feeling the absence of 
the divine favor, in the sweet assurance that God is 
reconciled to him in the face of Jesus Christ. Comfort ^ 
comes to one exposed to doubt and error in the con- 
sciousness that he can be led by the Spirit into all truth. 
Comfort comes to one uncertain as to his future, when 
he knows that his life is hid with Christ, and that when 
Christ who is his life shall appear, he "shall appear with 
Him in glory." To each of these special cases it is the 
office of the Holy Ghost to minister ; and no other being 
can relieve the real distress of the soul: for even the 
scheme of salvation — devised in the infinite love of God 
the Father, and wrought out in the infinite love of God 
the Son — is valueless to save the soul, unless applied and 
made effective, by the Holy Ghost. So that in very 
truth, in very essence, He is the Comforter. 

This Comforter, Christ says, "the world can not re- 
ceive," because it "seeth Him not, neither knoweth 
Him." By the world is here meant carnal men en- 
grossed in things of time and sense. Thus St. Paul 
says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." And 
again, "To be carnally-minded is death." The world's 
aims, views, plans, are earthly, temporal, sensual; the 
very opposite of the aims and plans of the Holy Ghost, 
so much so that the world can not either see them or 
know them. "The natural man," says St. Paul, "re- 
ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are 
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, be- 
cause they are spiritually discerned." The things of 
the Spirit, can be seen and known o^ily by those whose 



32 THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 



eyes have been anointed by the Spirit with the power 
of spiritual vision. 

The apostle puts the question in this form: "What 
man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of 
man which is in Him? Even so the things of God know- 
eth no man, but the Spirit of God." It is neither by any 
worldly learning, or worldly schemes, or worldly phi- 
losophy, that we are to receive the Comforter. On the 
contrary, the possession of a worldly mind puts us in a 
nonreceptive condition, and as soon can sunshine dwell 
in a dark dungeon as the Comforter abide in a worldly 
heart. The Comforter will displace the world, or the 
world will keep out the Comforter. 

"But ye," says Christ, addressing His disciples, "know 
Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." 
The persons whom our Lord addressed were rude, un- 
cultivated, unlearned men. Had they attempted to es- 
tablish schools like Hillel, or Gamaliel, they would have 
been frowned upon by the Scribes and Pharisees as ig- 
norant pretenders. Had they gone to Alexandria and 
given themselves out as teachers of religion, the Egyp- 
tian philosophers would have sneered at their preten- 
sions. Had they visited the Stoa Pecile, the Grove, or 
the Academy, the Stoics, and Cynics, and Platonists of 
Greece would have mocked at their words and turned a 
deaf ear to their teaching. But to these Galilean peas- 
ants and fishermen was given by Christ Himself the 
Spirit of truth itself, the very Lord and Giver of life, 
who was to dwell with them, in them, and abide there 
forever. Truly may we also lift up our eyes to heaven 
and say with Jesus, " I thank thee, Father, Lord of 
heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from 
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto 



THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 33 



babes." And truly may we say with the apostle, "The 
world by wisdom knew not God," and that "The wis- 
dom of the world is foolishness with God." Yes, we 
have what the profoundest minds of earth have sought 
for in vain, — the Spirit of truth ; and from these men, not 
from the temples of India, not from the halls of Alex- 
andria, not from the schools of Athens, has gone forth 
the truth, which has enlightened, revolutionized, and 
redeemed the world. 

The truth which this Spirit of truth as the Comforter 
is to reveal, is "the truth as it is in Jesus." When 
Jesus says of this Spirit that "He shall guide you into 
all truth," it does not mean that the Holy Ghost will 
guide you into natural truth, or scientific truth, or 
metaphysical truth; but into those great central truths 
— the atoning death, the justifying righteousness of 
J esus Christ ; those poles on which turn as on an axle 
the whole round scheme of redemption and grace. As 
it was by this Spirit of truth that the prophecies con- 
cerning Christ were uttered which fill the Old Testa- 
ment ; as it was by the Spirit of truth that Jesus was 
conceived by the Virgin Mary ; as it was by this Spirit 
of truth that He was anointed for His ministry after 
His baptism : so is it declared that His office is to take 
of the things of Christ and show them unto men. Hence 
Christ says of this Spirit, He shall teach you all things. 
He shall testify of me. He shall glorify me. He shall 
show you things to come. He will guide you into all 
truth. Who can so teach all things as the Spirit that 
"searcheth all things; yea, the deep things of God?" 
Who can so testify of Christ as the Spirit which re- 
vealed His person and advent through three thousand 
years of prophecy? Who can so glorify Christ as the 
3 \ 



34 THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 



Spirit who formed His human body and anointed Him 
for His ministry? Who can so show ns things to come 
as the Spirit who has established His veracity as the 
Spirit of truth by an ever-augmented stream of fulfilled 
prophecy, from the fall of Eden to the nunc dimitis of aged 
Simeon ? Who can so guide into all truth as the Spirit 
of truth who leads the soul to truth itself, the incarnate 
truth, even Jesus Christ? There is no spiritual truth 
that starts not from Christ, or centres not in Christ. 
Touch any point of the vast circumference of divine 
truth which you please, and trace back thence any radi- 
ating line, and it will lead you directly to J esus ; for as 
there is but one fountain of light in the solar system, so 
there is but one fountain of truth in the moral firma- 
ment — Jesus Christ, "In whom dwelleth all the fulness 
of the God-head bodily." 

Now this truth of Christ, which this Spirit of truth 
teaches us, is not mere abstract dogmas, or inert but 
logical speculations : it is living truth, and it is quicken- 
ing truth ; it has life in itself and imparts life, and here- 
in it contrasts with the teachings of all mere human 
philosophies. For human philosophy, like the aurora 
borealis, flashes and coruscates in the night season, at- 
tracting thousands of eyes by its brilliant scintillations, 
evoking countless speculations and conjectures, but per- 
manently lighting nothing, warming nothing, vivifying 
nothing ; and when they fade leave the sky darker than 
before. But "the truth as it is in Jesus," which the 
Spirit of truth reveals, like the sun, floods the world 
with its rays, and not only enlightens it, but warms it ; 
and not only warms it, but makes it teem with life ; and 
not only vitalizes it, but beautifies it; shining not fit- 
fully, but permanently; not in one section of the sky 



THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 35 



alone, but from under the whole heavens; not to die 
away in deeper darkness, but to culminate in the merid- 
ian light of heaven. 

Not only is this Comforter a teaching Spirit, but 
Christ says, "He dwelleth with you, and shall be in 
you." Let us examine for a moment the force of those 
two little prepositions with and in. 

A twofold power of the Spirit is here implied : an out- 
ward guarding, protecting, helping power, and an in- 
ward controlling, animating, and sanctifying power. 
The one preposition ivith implies an agency acting from 
without and in concert with ourselves ; the other prepo- 
sition in implies an agency at work within, developing 
itself from the heart outward. 

It would be esteemed a rare privilege to have a great 
and truly noble person dwell with us, a St. Paul, a St. 
Chrysostom, a St. Augustine: to have such an one be 
our perpetual monitor, and adviser, and exemplar; to 
have him show us how to act, how to speak, how to 
live; to have the benefit of his oversight, his wisdom, 
his favor. But then the person thus favored might 
never fully copy the devotion of an Augustine, the elo- 
quence of a Chrysostom, or the holiness of a Paul. How 
different, however, would the case be if there was a pro- 
cess by which the spirit of those great men, in its whole- 
ness could be infused into the minds and hearts of 
others, so that instead of dwelling with an Augustine, 
Augustine should by his spirit dwell in them ; instead 
of living with a Chrysostom, Chrysostom should live his 
life in them ; instead of copying a Paul beside us, Paul 
should dwell in us as the abiding spirit. What a differ- 
ence there would be! The indwelling spirit of an Au- 
gustine would make a second Augustine; the infused 



36 THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 

spirit of a Chrysostom, would make another golden- 
mouthed preacher; and a Paul living in us, would re- 
produce the spirit and the deeds of the great apostle in 
our own life and work. 

The Comforter, as the Spirit of truth, not only dwells 
with us as a guest; but dwells in us as the inner con- 
trolling, shaping, enlightening, sanctifying Spirit, evolv- 
ing out of Himself through the functions and faculties 
of our being, the fruits and graces of a holy life, and 
the beautiful character of a true Christian. And what 
a beautiful character must necessarily be developed by 
such an indwelling Spirit. The artist who paints a 
picture, or chisels a statue, impresses a certain amount 
of his own genius on flat canvas or cold marble. It is 
not a beauty developed from within, working outward ; 
but something put upon the passive canvas or marble, 
by an outside process that never goes beneath the sur- 
face, never imparts life within. But the artist power 
of the Holy Ghost is seen, in that taking up His abode 
in the heart, He renews and sanctifies that heart, and 
the outward life is but the development of the inward 
grace. The Comforter, as the Spirit of holiness, hallows 
each thought and affection, and the man becomes holy. 
The Comforter, as the Spirit of wisdom, enlightens each 
faculty of the mind, and the man is made wise unto sal- 
vation. The Comforter, as the Spirit of truth, guides 
the intellect into all truth, and the man stands forth 
truth's freeman with the fetters of doubt and error bro- 
ken at his feet. The Comforter, as the Spirit of grace 
and help, teaches how to pray and what to pray for, 
and the man goes boldly to the throne of grace. The 
Comforter, as the Spirit of strength, energizes all the 
powers of the man for effective labor, and the man be- 



THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 37 



comes stalwart in the strength of God. The Comforter, 
as the Spirit of the fear of the Lord, imparts a whole- 
some dread of offending, and reverence to God, and the 
man seeks to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. 
And when there is at work in the soul such agencies, 
active, powerful, divine ; and when the soul necessarily 
develops outwardly the animating spirit within, — must 
there not result a moral beauty, a beauty made up of 
the blended features of holiness, truth, wisdom, prayer, 
reverence, which, combined, will produce a loveliness 
of life and character beyond the imagination of the art- 
ist, or the conception of the poet, or the dream of the 
philosopher ? 

Can such divine power dwell with us, and in us, and 
not be to us full of comfort so as indeed to merit the 
name, the Comforter? 

But the dwelling in us of the Comforter not only 
moulds our life on His own model, and reproduces in 
us His own features ; but it turns each heart in which 
He abides into a temple. "Know ye not," says the 
apostle, to the Corinthians, "that your body is the tem- 
ple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you ? " And again 
he says, "Know .ye not that ye are the temple of God, 
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" And, 
writing to the Ephesians, he speaks of Christians as be- 
ing " builded together for a habitation of God through 
the Spirit." These are words that startle us by their 
boldness, and awe us by their mystery. Christians then 
are temples ! temples of the Holy Ghost ! habitations of 
God through the Spirit! A temple is set apart from 
common and worldly to holy and divine uses ; in it (the 
temple from which the apostle drew his illustration), 
were offered sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving; it 



38 THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 

was sacredly preserved from pollution and defilement, 
and in it God specially manifested His presence. It 
was God's house, reserved for God's use, and occupied 
for God's glory. So the Christian heart is a living tem- 
ple in which God dwells by His Holy Spirit. It is not 
his, for he is bought with a price, and has become 
God's, and nothing unhallowed or irreverent should 
enter there. 

In this temple of the heart, God communes with us 
by the Holy Ghost : in it assures of pardon, and speaks 
words of love, and all the while that the Comforter 
dwells there, He is beautifying it with His grace, purg- 
ing out every spot, and making it meet for the holy use 
to which the Holy Ghost has consecrated it. 

The Christian then carries about with him a temple ; 
he is himself a temple, and in him abides the Comforter. 
And thus the " God of all comfort " is ever enshrined in 
the Christian soul; not, as the shekinah of the Jewish 
temple, local and definite in form and material, a mere 
symbol of divinity, but divinity itself in its enlighten- 
ing, controlling, life-giving, soul-renewing power, dif- 
fused through every part of our sentient being, and 
hallowing the whole man as a consecrated "habitation 
of God through the Spirit." 

The crowning glory of this abiding of the Comforter 
in us is that He will abide there forever. He comes to 
us not as a casual visitor, here to-day and gone to-mor- 
row ; but He takes up His abode in us, makes His home 
there, turns it into His dwelling, and having thus made 
it a temple, He inhabits it forever ; for even death does 
not remove Him, for He dwelleth in us forever. 

Tell me, then, does not the Holy Ghost well deserve 
to be called the Comforter? 



THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE COMFORTER. 39 



This Comforter becomes ours in answer to earnest 
prayer. God has said that He is " more ready to give 
the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, than parents are 
to give good things unto their children." This gracious 
promise, — so full, so paternal, so appealing to our own 
consciousness and sympathy, — can be made ours by ask- 
ing the God of all comfort to bestow upon us the gift of 
the Holy Ghost according to Christ's own promise and 
for the satisfying of our own spiritual needs. Such re- 
quest made in faith, in Christ's name, will be heard — 
will be answered; and thus can we secure all the rich 
blessings which an indwelling Comforter can bestow 
upon a human soul. 



IV. 



DELAYED MERCIES RESULTING IN GREATER 
GLORY TO CHRIST. 

"Therefore his sisters sent unto Him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom 
Thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, He said, This sickness is 
not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be 
glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." 
John xi. 3-5. 

It is very pleasing as we read the writings of the 
evangelists to light upon passages which unfold the 
workings of Christ's heart, in its domestic and social 
relations. While those who deny the divinity of Christ 
in their efforts to elevate His human character sink the 
divine, it is also true that those who believe in His God- 
head are apt to overlook the human side of His life, in 
their aim to defend the fundamental doctrine of the 
Bible that " God was manifest in the flesh." Both as- 
pects of Christ's character are to be studied. The one, 
that we may the more worthily worship and adore Him ; 
the other, that we may more readily imitate His exam- 
ple, and follow in His steps. We bow with reverential 
awe before the divine in Christ : we copy with reveren- 
tial love what is human. 

Both sides of Christ's character are, however, remark- 
ably developed, and intermingled in the portion of 
Scripture from which the text is taken. We see Him 
as a man and as a God. As a man, groaning in spirit, 



DELAYED MERCIES, GREATER GLORY TO CHRIST. 41 



sympathizing with sorrow, and mingling His tears with 
weeping mourners ; as a God, waking the dead, and pro- 
claiming Himself the "Resurrection and the Life." His 
divinity reveals itself in His words and deeds ; His hu- 
manity in His groans and tears. 

Our blessed Lord had no home of His own. "The 
foxes," He said, "had holes, and the birds of the air 
nests, but the Son of man had not where to lay His 
head." The house, however, of Martha, and Mary, and 
Lazarus seems to have been a place to which He fre- 
quently resorted, not only because it was convenient to 
Jerusalem, being only fifteen furlongs distant, but also 
because He found there quietness, peace, and love ; the 
essential elements of domestic happiness. 

From several incidental notices in the Bible, we learn 
that the family of Bethany was rather above the middle 
class of life, had ample means, a large circle of influen- 
tial friends, and was regarded with great respect, not 
only in their own village, but also in Jerusalem. But 
that which most endears the family to our notice is the 
fact related by the apostle, — "Now Jesus loved Martha, 
and her sister, and Lazarus." To be specially singled 
out from so many of the families of Judea, and to receive 
the special love of Him who was Himself altogether 
lovely, and who also could read the very thoughts and 
intents of the heart, was one of the highest honors 
which could be conferred on a domestic circle. But 
neither their comfortable home, their united hearts, nor 
their friendship with Jesus, could keep away sickness 
from their door. It entered into their house, and laid 
their only brother upon a bed of pain and languishing. 
Despairing, perhaps, of human help, and remembering 
the love of their friend Jesus, the sisters sent unto Him, 



42 



DELAYED MERCIES RESULTING IN 



saying, "Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick." 
How exquisitely tender was that message ! It was not 
like the nobleman of Capernaum urging, "Sir, come 
down, ere my child die." It w T as not like the mes- 
sage of the ruler of the synagogue, "My daughter is 
even now dead, but come and lay Thy hand upon her, 
and she shall live." It was not like the message of 
the good Centurion sending the elders of the Jews to 
Jesus beseeching Him that He would come and heal his 
servant. It was not like the Syro-Phenician woman 
crying after Jesus with importunate voice that He 
would cast forth the devil out of her daughter : but it 
was a simple message to Jesus announcing the fact 
that Lazarus was sick. It contained no request, it did 
not presume to dictate what should be done, it asked 
not that He would even come and see him, much less 
come and heal him. The sisters, in the fulness of their 
own love both to Jesus and Lazarus, felt that all that 
was needed was that Christ should be informed of his 
sickness and that His love and wisdom would dictate 
what was best to be done. What perfect submission 
and unreserved confidence was here! and how was it 
more beautifully brought out by that appeal to Jesus' 
own love for the brother, " Lord, behold, he whom Thou 
lovest is sick." I can scarcely imagine a more touching 
and submissive message. They stated a fact, appealed 
to His love, and then rested their case. What a lesson 
to us all is here ! The appeal, tender as it was, appeared 
to be unheeded. Jesus was only a day's journey from 
Bethany and could perhaps have reached the sick bed 
of Lazarus before the fatal change, and the sisters doubt- 
less expected His visit, and indulged high hopes that 
He would come and heal their brother. As the sorrow- 



GREATER GLORY TO CHRIST. 



43 



laden hours slowly rolled by, their watching eyes and 
waiting hearts grew dim and faint when no approach- 
ing footsteps told of Jesus, and no arrest was made to 
the fatal disease. But our Lord had higher ends to 
subserve than merely to restore health to a sick friend. 
Note the language of Christ when told of the sickness 
of Lazarus, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the 
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified 
thereby." The sickness, then, of this loved friend was a 
preordained event for a specific end, and with that bed 
of languishing was to be associated the glory of God, 
and with the recall of life to the dead, the Son of God 
was also to be glorified in the sight of earth and heaven. 
Had Jesus gone at the first intimation of Lazarus' sick- 
ness to Bethany and raised him up from sickness as He 
did Peter's wife's mother, it would indeed have been a 
miracle of mercy which would have produced a momen- 
tary stir in the village, and then been forgotten. The 
time had come, however, for Christ to make a marked 
unfolding of His power and His mission, and He would 
seek an occasion which would best illustrate His design. 
To that end, Lazarus must die, must be buried, must be 
turning into corruption. Hence Christ abode still two 
days in Perea after He had been told that Lazarus was 
sick. Not until the third day did He say to His disci- 
ples, " Let us go into Judea again," accompanying His 
remarks with the declaration, "Our friend Lazarus sleep- 
eth ; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep ; " and 
when His disciples, mistaking His meaning, said, " Lord, 
if he sleep, he shall do well," Jesus plainly told them, 
"Lazarus is dead." Two days before, He had said that 
Lazarus' sickness was "not unto death," and yet he died; 
so that the first words of Christ must*be interpreted to 



44 



DELAYED MERCIES RESULTING IN 



mean, the final issue of this sickness shall not be unto 
death ; its immediate result was death, its remote result 
resurrection, and the bringing in of great glory to God. 
Overlooking, therefore, its immediate and temporary re- 
sult — death, and looking to its final result — life from 
the dead, our Lord spoke truly when He said, "This 
sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, 
that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." 

And now is brought out another reason why this sick- 
ness was permitted to end to all human appearance in 
death: "And I am glad," says Christ, "for your sakes, 
that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe." 
These disciples had witnessed many mighty works of 
Jesus; still they were "slow of heart to believe," and 
needed perpetually recurring evidences of the power 
and glory of their divine Master. Such a miracle as 
that which He purposed would tend very much to es- 
tablish their faith; for, all things considered, it was the 
most striking miracle performed by Jesus, and their wit- 
nessing it must have tended vastly to the increase of 
their faith. 

At length, — to the weeping, hoping sisters, how 
long seemed those four days ! — at length Jesus arrives, 
and the sisters see Him, and almost with upbraiding 
voice and blighted hope exclaim, u Lord, if Thou hadst 
been here, my brother had not died." The conversation 
w r hich ensued was designed to test their faith, and pre- 
pare the way for their full reception of the temporal 
and spiritual blessings which He was purposing to 
impart. And here again peer out some of the beauti- 
ful human traits of Christ's character. To use the lan- 
guage of a Scotch divine, "Martha's grief is not so over- 
whelming as to prevent her utterance. She is calm, and 



GREATER GLORY TO CHRIST. 



45 



cool, and collected enough to enter into argument. She 
can give expression to her convictions and her hopes. 
She can tell that her faith is not shaken, even by so 
severe a disappointment. Not so her sister Mary. She, 
indeed, when at last she is emboldened by her Master's 
kind message, goes forth to meet Him, and her rever- 
ence, her devotion, her faith, are not less than those 
of Martha. But her heart is too full for many words. 
Her emotions, when she sees the Lord, she can not utter. 
She can but cast herself down weeping before Him and 
say, 4 Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not 
died.' She adds not a word more. She lies prostrate 
and silent at His feet." 

And now observe how the Lord's demeanor towards 
the two sisters u was exactly suited to their respective 
tempers and their different kinds of grief. Martha's 
distress was of such a nature that it admitted of dis- 
course. Jesus accordingly spoke to her, and led her to 
speak to Him. He talked with her on the subject most 
interesting and seasonable, — on the resurrection of the 
body and the life of the soul. When Mary, on the 
other hand, draws near in the anguish of silent woe, 
Jesus is differently affected, and His sympathy is shown 
in a different way. He is much more profoundly moved. 
He does not reply to her in words, for her own words 
were few. Sorrow has choked her utterance, and over- 
mastered her soul. But the sight of one so dear to Him 
lying in such helpless grief at His feet is an appeal to 
Him far stronger than any supplication, and His own 
responsive sigh is an answer more comforting than any 
promise. 4 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and 
the JeAvs also weeping which came with her,' for it 
was a melting scene, 4 He groaned in the spirit, and 



46 



DELAYED MERCIES RESULTING IN 



was troubled/ When He had asked of the bystand- 
ers, 'Where have ye laid him?' and received the re- 
ply, 'Come and see,' His sympathetic heart could re- 
strain itself no longer, and a scene occurred which, 
though recorded in only two words, describes one of 
the most touchingly sublime incidents in the whole 
gospel — 'Jesus wept!' most blessed mourner, with 
whose tears thy Saviour mingles His own! sympa- 
thy most unparalleled! glorious Saviour, to mingle 
Thy tears with the tears of human sorrow! 

"To each the Lord addressed the very consolation 
that was most congenial. To Martha He gave exceed- 
ing great and precious assurances in words such as never 
man spake; to Mary He communicated the groanings 
of His spirit in language more expressive to the heart 
than any words could be. With Martha, Jesus dis- 
coursed and reasoned; with Mary, 'Jesus wept.' 

" Thus is it now. There is a most wondrous adapta- 
tion of Christ's consolations to the Christian mourner. 
No matter what your grief, what your temperament, 
what your situation, what your state of mind, He will 
give you the very cordial, the very refreshment of 
which you stand in need. Like a skilful physician 
He adapts His healing balms to the various wounds 
of the spirit. For the sorrow that seeks vent in words, 
and desires by words also to be soothed, there are the 
Saviour's open ears, the Saviour's speaking lips ; for the 
grief that is dumb, and that lies silent at His feet, 
there are the Saviour's uplifted hands and the Saviour's 
tears." 

The sorrow-bowed and weeping party now stand by 
the grave. Mary had often gone to the grave to weep 
there, for affection consecrates the spot where the loved 



GREATER GLORY TO CHRIST. 



47 



one lies. And now Martha and Mary, and all the 
Jews who had come from J erusalem to comfort the sis- 
ters, and probably many of the Bethany people also, 
stood in silent mourning before the cave, never for a 
moment anticipating the scene that was about to tran- 
spire. Indeed, when our Lord, as if to give a premoni- 
tion of what He was to do, told those around, "Take 
ye away the stone," which covered the entrance to 
the grave, Martha, as usual, ready to speak as well as 
prompt to act, remonstrated by suggesting that cor- 
ruption had already begun its work, that she could 
not bear the exposure of that decaying face, "for he 
hath been dead four days." With a gentle rebuke, and 
with an allusion to a former conversation not reported 
by the evangelist, our Lord replies to her remonstrance, 
" Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, 
thou shouldest see the glory of God ? " Lifting up His 
eyes to heaven, He offers a thanksgiving prayer, — a mo- 
ment of mute expectation follows, and the loud voice 
of Jesus utters the mandatory words, " Lazarus, come 
forth." All eyes turn to the open cave, and almost start 
from their sockets, as the slowly moving form, bound 
hand and foot, obeys the summons and stands, not a 
dead, but a living Lazarus in their midst. Jesus had 
told His disciples, " I go to awake him out of his sleep," 
and now the awakened Lazarus stood before them. Je- 
sus had told Martha, "Thy brother shall rise again," 
and now the risen Lazarus proved the truth of His dec- 
laration. Jesus had told the sisters that, if they would 
believe, they should " see the glory of God," and now 
that glory was wondrously manifest in their sight. Je- 
sus had announced Himself, "I am the Eesurrection 
and the Life," and now His deed at the grave of the 



48 



DELAYED MERCIES RESULTING IN 



dead Lazarus vindicated His right to be called the Lord 
of life and glory. 

Wonderful Saviour! Just now Thou wast groaning 
in spirit and wast troubled ; just now Thou wast weep- 
ing in sympathy with a weeping woman, and, lo ! while 
the tears are yet on Thy cheek, Thou sendest Thy quick- 
ening voice into the chamber of the grave, into the ear 
of the dead, and the swathed, and stiffened, and lifeless 
body, breathes, and moves, and lives : restored to health, 
to joy, to his sisters' home, to his Saviour's love ! The 
blighted hopes of the sisters have been turned by Christ 
into the highest blessing. 

And now let us notice how this sickness of Lazarus 
did redound to "the glory of God, that the Son of God 
might be glorified thereby." Here let me remind you 
that the moral glory of God to which reference is here 
made, is represented to us, as St. Paul tells the Corin- 
thians, only "in the face of Jesus Christ." "For God," 
he says, "who commanded the light to shine out of 
darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of 
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ." Hence our Lord Himself said on a subsequent 
occasion, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is 
glorified in Him." 

How then was Christ glorified by this miracle ? By 
the evidence which He gave of the possession of divine 
power. Looking at the miracle in a merely physical as- 
pect, it was a mighty deed to raise the dead. Human 
skill or power could not preserve life when it was in the 
body, could not keep out death, when he approached, 
much less bring back the soul that had fled, and snatch 
the body from the cold arms of the destroyer. He only 
who could create man, could raise man. He only who 



GREATER GLORY TO CHRIST. 



49 



at the first could breathe into him the breath of life, 
could call back that life when once fled. It is such a 
miracle as only a divine Being could perform; and it 
was done, not as the Apostles did their miracles, in the 
name of another and by invoked power which did not 
inhere in them. Jesus did this in His own name, in- 
voking no power, and calling no aid from without, but 
in the consciousness of His divinity, and in the putting 
forth of His own will, He sent out His voice and cried, 
" Lazarus, come forth." 

This miracle proved Jesus to be the Conqueror of 
death and the grave. This, however, involves nearly 
the whole mediatorial work of the blessed Saviour. 
Death was the curse pronounced because of sin. Had 
there been no sin, there would have been no death. 
"By one man," says St. Paul, "sin entered into the 
world, and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all 
men, for that all have sinned." Hence each death-bed, 
coffin, funeral, grave, tells of sin. Death as the curse 
procured by sin could not be abolished until sin was 
done away. Now Christ "was manifested," says St. 
John, "to take away our sin; and in Him was no sin." 
Hence Christ, says St. Paul, "hath redeemed us from 
the curse of the law," or death, by "being made a curse 
for us," i. e., He who in consequence of His sinlessness 
did not come under the curse of death, voluntarily 
took upon Himself that curse, and by obeying the law 
which we had broken, on the one hand, and endur- 
ing the curse which our disobedience had merited on 
the other, He has destroyed for all who believe in Him 
the power of sin, obtained for them a justifying right- 
eousness, freed them from the curse of the law, and 
thus exempted them from eternal death: He conquered 
i 



50 



DELAYED MERCIES RESULTING IN 



death by conquering sin which brought in death, and 
we, weak, trembling believers, are thus enabled to tri- 
umph in His triumph, and can say, " Thanks be unto 
God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." What a moral power was required for this! 

This miracle glorified Jesus, and glorified God through 
Him, by showing that J esus was the Lord of life and 
glory. He had already proclaimed Himself the life of 
men, the life of the world. John declared, " In Him was 
life, and the life was the light of men." Here He de- 
clares with solemn effect, "I am the Eesurrection and 
the Life," He was the life, as being the Prince of life, 
the Lord and Giver of life, from Him all created life 
flowed, in Him it had its origin, for "by Him," says the 
apostle, "all things consist." Especially was Christ to 
show Himself the Lord of life in the work of the resur- 
rection. It was His voice which was to raise the sleeping 
dust, His Spirit which was to quicken the dead. He was 
the Author and Worker-out of the resurrection. Men 
should die because all had sinned, but men should live 
again, some to shame and everlasting contempt, some to 
glory, and honor, and immortality. Jesus would give 
life to all ; but the life of the wicked would be to them 
an eternal death, a perpetual dying out in the soul of 
hope, joy, peace, love, and every thing that made life a 
desirable existence; but the life which He would im- 
part to believers is His own life, eternal life in His 
own kingdom, among His own angels, before His own 
throne, abiding in His eternal home. 

Such, in brief outline, are some of the ways in which 
this miracle glorified Jesus Christ. It illustrates His 
human sympathy. It teaches us the source of all true 
comfort in sorrow. It shows us the interest which Christ 



GREATER GLORY TO CHRIST. 



51 



feels in the grief of those He loves. It tells us of the 
blessed hopes which Christ inspires in the mourners 
heart. It warns us never under the pressure of grief to 
distrust the love or power of Jesus, or to be cast down 
at the apparent keeping away of the Saviour from the 
house of mourning. It illustrates His divine power — 
a power reaching beyond this life, a power over the 
grave and death, a power which only God possesses, 
and which only God could manifest. It illustrates His 
mediatorial and redeeming glory, as the Conqueror of 
sin, the Despoiler of the grave, the Victor of death, the 
Giver of eternal life. It shows us that redemption's 
work was fully accomplished, the captives to sin fully 
enfranchised, the victims of death fully disenthralled, 
the tenants of the grave fully set at liberty in, and 
by, and through Him who is the Eesurrection and the 
Life, and who hath declared, "He that believeth in me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever 
liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." Never die 
the eternal death, never die to all the glories, the ho- 
liness, the bliss of heaven — but live: live beyond the 
grave, live in unending glory as a saint in light. 



V. 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 

"For there was not a house where there was not one dead." — Ex. xii. 30. 

The plagues of Egypt were the most afflictive that 
ever scourged any nation. They were designed to hum- 
ble the pride of Pharaoh, to secure the release of the 
Israelites, to show the terrors of an angry God, and the 
vanity of that idolatry which then swayed the Egyptian 
mind. By the first plague, all "the waters of Egypt 
being turned into blood," was demonstrated the superi- 
ority of Jehovah over their imaginary river god, and 
the baseness of the element which they reverenced. 
By the second plague, " the coming up of frogs and 
covering the land," the Nile, the object of their worship, 
was made an instrument of their punishment. By the 
third, the "plague of lice," the superstition of the peo- 
ple was reproved, and the bodies of the boastful priests 
defiled. The fourth "plague of flies," showed them the 
impotence of the god whom they worshipped that he 
might drive away the very gad-fly which now stung 
them in every part. The fifth plague, "the murrain 
among cattle," was the manifestation of God's hand 
against the living objects of their worship; for the 
sacred bull, the cow, the heifer, the ram, fell dead 
before their worshippers. The sixth plague, "the in- 
fliction of boils, accompanied with blains," baffled the 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 



53 



skill of their physicians, and visited them with a dis- 
ease, which neither their deities could avert, nor the 
art of man alleviate. The seventh plague "of hail, 
rain, and fire," showed them that neither Osiris who 
presided over fire, nor Isis who presided over water, 
could protect them from the thunder, and hail, and 
fire, of Jehovah. The eighth "plague of locusts," set 
at naught the gods in whom the Egyptians trusted to 
deliver them from these insects. The ninth plague of 
" three days of darkness," evinced that the sun and the 
moon which they worshipped as the soul of the world 
and the ruler of all things, were but servants and creat- 
ures of Israel's God. But the tenth and last of these 
plagues, the destruction of "all the first-born in the 
land of Egypt, both man and beast," was the severest 
of all ; it came nearer to the hearts of the people, pro- 
duced more general sorrow, and resulted in effecting 
the deliverance of the Israelites from the tyranny of 
the king. The former plagues had proved ineffectual; 
they had rolled over that imperious king, and court, 
and people, the devasting billows of God's wrath, rising 
higher, and waxing stronger, as each successive wave 
swelled and clashed itself against the throne of Pha- 
raoh; yet the monarch's heart was still hardened, and 
he refused to let Israel go. Shall God give up the con- 
test? Shall he let Israel remain in the brick-kilns and 
under taskmasters? Shall Pharaoh exult and say, My 
heart was stouter than God's arm — I still clutch His 
people in my grasp, despite His boasted power? No! 
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one 
plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; after- 
wards he will let you go hence." "About midnight 
will I go out into the midst of Egypt: and all the 



54 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 



first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first- 
born of Pharaoh that sitteth on the throne, even unto 
the first-born of the maid - servant that is behind the 
mill; and all the first-born of beasts." The sacred rec- 
ord tells us how God made good His word: u And it 
came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the 
first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of 
Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the 
captive that was in the dungeon ; and all the first-born 
of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and 
all his servants, and all the Egyptians ; and there was a 
great cry in Egypt: for there was not a house where 
there was not one dead." 

Herodotus informs us that it was the custom of the 
Egyptians to rush from the house into the street to 
bewail the dead with loud and bitter outcries, and 
every member of the family joined in these sad lamen- 
tations. What, then, must have been the horror of that 
scene, when, in the darkness of midnight, that whole 
nation, roused from their slumbers by the angel of 
death, rushed forth with the loud shrieks of agony and 
despair, to wail over their dead, now lying cold and still 
in every house from the palace to the dungeon ! Truly 
did God say of it, " There shall be a great cry through- 
out all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like 
it, nor shall be like it any more." Not a house in 
which there was not one dead ! What a record ! His- 
tory furnishes no parallel instance. The terrific pesti- 
lence which raged in Athens in the second year of the 
Peloponnesian War, so minutely and thrillingly described 
by Thucydides, when the dead and the dying lay piled 
upon one another, not merely on the public roads, but 
even in the temples : — the terrible epidemic which Livy 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 



55 



mentions as desolating Eome : — the plague that ravaged 
Florence in the middle of the fourteenth century, with 
a notice of which the Decameron of Boccacio opens : — the 
equally murderous one that decimated London in the 
latter half of the seventeenth century, so graphically 
portrayed by De Foe: — and that modern scourge, the 
Cholera, which, born and cradled in Asia, has marched 
like a pestilence king in the maturity of its strength 
westward over Europe, and heedless of three thousand 
miles of ocean has planted its crushing feet upon these 
shores, trampling down thousands and tens of thou- 
sands in its path: — all these, direful as they are, and 
were, can scarcely compare, in the number slain, in the 
desolation made, in the sorrow produced, in the sudden- 
ness of the stroke, in the universality of bereavement, 
in the nationality of the wailing, with the tenth and 
last plague of God, when at midnight, the angel of the 
Lord passed through Egypt and smote all the first-born, 
wringing from every family and heart a shriek of an- 
guish: "for there was not a house in which there was 
not one dead ! " Can you conceive such a scene ? Can 
you, by the strongest effort of imagination, picture out 
the woe of such an hour ? No, it must ever lie in the 
midnight darkness that enshrouded the scene, and that 
wild wail that rose from millions of simultaneously 
stricken hearts can neither be imagined nor described. 
The very consideration of such a subject gives us pain, 
and we willingly turn away from its scenes of sorrow 
and death. 

Yet, may it not be said of nearly every family in this 
church, this city, this land, there is not a house where 
there is not one dead? I answer, Yes. I do not mean 
that death at some time or other has gone into your 



56 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 



midst and taken away one of your family group; for 
solemn and truthful are those words of the poet : 

" There is no flock, however watched and tended, 
But one dead lamb is there; 
There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, 
But has one vacant chair." 

But I refer to the " dead in trespasses and sins." It 
is this solemn fact of the prevalence in each household 
and family of this spiritual death to which I wish to 
turn your anxious thoughts ; and if the Holy Ghost will 
but enable me to speak as I ought, and seal what you 
hear upon your hearts, you will soon perceive that, terri- 
ble as was the condition of the Egyptians, more dreadful 
still is the state of our households in each of which there 
is one at least spiritually " dead in trespasses and sins." 

In the Bible, alienation from God, spiritual ignorance, 
carnal-mindedness, unbelief, living in worldly pleasures, 
hypocrisy, continuance in trespasses and sins, are each 
called death — spiritual death; and justly too, for how 
can the soul that is alienated from the life of God be 
alive unto God? And if we are not alive unto God 
there is no spiritual life in us, and whosoever is de- 
void of spiritual life, is spiritually dead. How can a 
soul that is carnally minded, engrossed with the things 
of the flesh, have life ? So impossible is this, that the 
apostle with great emphasis declares, "For to be car- 
nally minded is death." How can he be truly alive, in 
the spiritual meaning of that word, who has no faith 
in Jesus, who in his unbelief refuses to receive Christ 
in any of His offices, or benefits ? It is impossible, for 
St. John says, " This is the record that God hath given 
unto us, eternal life; and this life is in His Son. He 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 



57 



tliat hath the Son, hath life ; and he that hath not the 
Son, hath not life." And a greater than John, Jesus 
Himself, declared: "Except ye eat the flesh and drink 
the blood of the Son of man, ye have no life in you ; " 
showing that unbelief, or the non-receiving of Christ 
as He is set forth in the gospel, is spiritual death. 
How can his soul be termed alive, in its Bible accepta- 
tion, whose whole being, mental, moral, physical, is en- 
grossed in the pleasures of this sinful world ? Never, 
until you can revoke St. Paul's declaration, "She that 
liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." Hence we 
draw the plain and solemn inference from these and 
other passages of Scripture, that all those who are liv- 
ing in sin, in hypocrisy, in mere worldly pleasure, in 
carnal -mindedness, in spiritual ignorance, in aliena- 
tion from God, and without that saving faith in J esus 
Christ which puts us in possession of all the benefits of 
His meritorious death and passion, are spiritually dead. 
Dead to all the higher purposes of their immortal souls ; 
dead to their heavenly inheritance; dead to the glory 
of God ; dead to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus : 
so that, though they live and breathe and have an earth- 
ly being ; though they move amid the gay and business 
scenes of this world ; though they employ their minds 
about science, art, and literature; though they frame 
states, and govern kingdoms, and marshal armies, and 
win the fading crowns which mortals give to mortals ; 
and though they may be loved, and honored, and es- 
teemed for moral worth and social virtues, and the 
sweet amiabilities of a life spotless to the eyes of 
men, — yet God pronounces them dead, for He sees their 
hearts, He knows their inner state, and His decision is 
the sentence of a God of holiness and truth. 



58 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 



You see nothing to distinguish the persons thus said 
to be dead from any others, but all things rather tell of 
life, of hope, of joy, and not of death and woe. But this 
spiritual death is none the less real, because invisible to 
mortal eye. Could the material film which blears the 
eye of the soul be removed, and we be permitted to 
gaze at those around us as they are viewed by God and 
angels; we should see more doleful evidences of death 
in the spirit of the impenitent and unbelieving, than we 
see with the eye of sense in the chamber of physical 
mortality and beside the opened grave. I say more 
doleful evidences, for then should we behold scenes of 
deepest anguish, — here, a man sleeping the sleep of 
death, in ignorance; here, one u dead in trespasses and 
sins " ; here, one inanimate to all the eternal interests of 
the soul; here another, lifeless in carnality; here one 
wrapped in the winding-sheet of his own hypocrisy; 
and there another, lying morally pulseless on the flower- 
decked bier of worldly pleasure, ready to be buried in 
the self-dug grave of his deceitful lusts. This surely 
is a sad condition. Would that it could be in some 
measure realized. But such is the carnal-mindedness 
of our nature, such the deception of the great adver- 
sary, such the prevailing influence of things seen and 
temporal over things unseen and eternal ; that though 
reason, and conscience, and Christian friends, and the 
Bible unite in telling you your death-like state, you lis- 
ten only as to the mutterings of far-off thunder ; gaze 
only as to the flashes of distant lightning; and then 
bend anew your thought, and mind, and heart, to the 
concerns of time and sense, to the utter exclusion of 
the things of the world to come. 

But are not the things of the world to come, the para- 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 



59 



mount things even of this life? for is not this life "the 
dim dawn, the twilight of an eternal day " that will break 
full upon us beyond the grave ? The character of that 
future is determined by the character of this present. 
The soul will be in eternity what it becomes in time. 
Hence as there is no knowledge, nor work, nor device, 
in the grave whither we go, so the destinies of the im- 
mortal soul for eternity lie within the shaping influ- 
ences of the present hour. Life's great work is not to 
live well and honorably on earth, but to fit yourself to 
live well and honorably hereafter. Life's great end is 
not to glorify ourselves here, but to prepare ourselves 
for glory hereafter, and that can be done only by glori- 
fying God now with our bodies and spirits which are 
His. The time is not far distant when we shall look 
back upon the years of this mortal life, and be amazed 
that we could suffer our immortal soul to be interested 
in the mean, contemptible, puerile, fleeting affairs of 
this probation-world; and neglect the momentous and 
eternal interests of our souls. Fool that I was, you 
shall exclaim, to be alive to every thing to which I 
should have been dead, and to be dead to every thing 
to which I should have been alive ! to barter the salva- 
tion of my soul, the favor of God, the joys of heaven, 
and eternal glory, for a few hours of turbid pleasure, for 
a few grains of glittering dust, for a few acclamations 
of human breath, for a few treasures of worldly learn- 
ing, all of which have now vanished as a dream, and 
left me hopeless, joyless, peaceless, heavenless forever ! 

Give to this subject but one hour's serious thought, 
implore upon it light from above, to guide your mind, 
study it in its Bible truthfulness, and be willing to look 
at it as the interests of your soul, and conscience, and 



60 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 



God require ; and you will not fail to learn that you are 
indeed spiritually dead, and that if you continue in this 
state, eternal death, the second death, will be your rem- 
ediless portion. 

Is there any help or escape from this spiritual death ? 
There is. The call of St. Paul to the Ephesian Chris- 
tians still rings in our ears, " Awake thou that sleepest 
and arise 1 from the dead and Christ shall give thee 
light." Through Christ, who is the Eesurrection and 
the Life, there is deliverance. He died that you might 
not die. He rose again that you might rise from the 
death of sin. He lives in glory that you may live and 
reign there also. He holds out to you every promise, 
the Holy Ghost visits you to rouse you from your insen- 
sible state, and God is waiting to be gracious. Every 
thing now is favorable to your salvation, every agency 
on God's part is at work to secure it, nothing is wanting 
to make eternal life yours, but the bowing of that stub- 
born will to the will of God ; and even this, the great 
stone that lies at the door of your moral sepulchre, — 
even this, God will aid you in rolling away, so soon as 
you yield to the monitions of the Spirit and are made 
willing in the day of His power. 

How imperative, then, is the duty which rests upon 
Christians to seek the salvation of all with whom they 
are connected by ties of blood or love. Did you truly 
believe what the Bible declares concerning your uncon- 
verted friends, you would be constrained to mourn over 
them with a bitter wailing. Were you to see your wife, 
husband, father, mother, brother, sister, son, or daughter, 
wasting away in disease, and struggling in the agonies 
of mortal death, how would your hearts be wrung with 
sorrow ! Yet you see them out of Christ, you know that 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 



61 



they are not followers of Jesus, you are assured by God 
himself that they are dead in trespasses and in sin, and 
you know that this spiritual death is but a step removed 
from the second death, the eternal death, and all the 
while you appear unconcerned about their salvation, un- 
moved at their perilous condition ; you behold them day 
by day sinking down to everlasting woe, and put forth 
no helping hand, lift up no warning voice, make no 
energetic effort to rouse them from their death-like 
stupor, and point them to Him who alone can give 
them spiritual life here and eternal life beyond the 
grave. Does not such conduct virtually give the lie to 
God? Does it not practically declare that the Bible is 
not true ? Does it not show that you esteem the bodies 
of your friends more than their souls, and that you re- 
gard their temporal interests as paramount to their 
spiritual? And does not such conduct in professing 
Christians falsify the teachings of the pulpit, the moni- 
tions of conscience, and the declarations of the Scrip- 
ture? And can you do this, Christian, and be guilt- 
less of the blood of those souls whom your indifference 
and carelessness has laid in the winding-sheet of eter- 
nal death? Christian father, mother, husband, wife, 
brother, sister, weigh well and prayerfully the responsi- 
bilities which rest upon you towards your unconverted 
children, partners, relatives, and dependents. There is 
perhaps one dead in each of your houses. It may be 
that one is near and dear to your heart. Oh, go out 
then to Jesus like Mary, and say, "I know that even 
* now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it 
thee." Go to Him like Jairus, and say, "My daughter 
is even now dead ; but come and lay thy hand on her 
and she shall live." And He who gave back the breath 



62 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 



to Lazarus, and to the ruler's daughter, and to the son 
of the widow of Nain, will rouse your beloved one from 
the sleep of spiritual death, will breathe into that dead 
one spiritual life, and as the " Eesurrection and the 
Life," will raise you up together, and make you sit to- 
gether in heavenly places to the praise of the glory of 
His grace who, when you were dead in trespasses and 
sins, quickened you into spiritual life here, and ushered 
you into eternal life hereafter. 



VI. 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 

"Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a 
Christian." — Acts xxvi. 28. 

There was in the character of St. Paul a moral sub- 
limity far excelling the loftiest of mere earthly heroes. 

In both phases of his life, as a persecuting Pharisee 
and as a Christian apostle, he was a noted man, remark- 
able for great qualities and peculiar developments emi- 
nently fitting him to become on the one hand a bitter 
persecutor, and on the other a noble preacher of the 
Cross of Christ. A bolder advocate of the truth, a more 
triumphant defender of the faith, there never has been 
in the whole history of Christianity. It mattered not 
where he was, or before whom he spake, his one theme 
was Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, and in every sta- 
tion he magnified his office. On several occasions, how- 
ever, his zeal and eloquence were peculiarly displayed, 
one of which is referred to in the text. 

Having been apprehended in Jerusalem under false 
charges, Paul was first taken before the Sanhedrim or 
Great National Council of the Jews; and thence he was 
sent by Claudius Lysias to Caesarea, until Felix, the 
governor of Judea, could hear his case; and by this 
cruel and servile man, he was kept in confinement two 



64 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



years. When Porcius Fesrtus succeeded to the govern- 
orship, he proposed to send Paul back to J erusalem ; but 
Paul conscious that he had done no wrong, and aware 
of the implacable hate of the chief priest and scribes, 
preferred to throw himself for justice on a heathen tri- 
bunal, rather than trust the prejudiced decisions of the 
Hebrew council ; and hence when Festus put to him the 
question, wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be 
judged of these things? Paul replied, "I stand at Cae- 
sar's judgment-seat," and adds, "I appeal unto Caesar"; 
for it was the privilege of all Roman citizens by the 
Lex Julia to choose whether they would be tried before 
a provincial or the imperial court. This exercise of 
Paul's right as a Roman citizen stopped all proceedings 
against him in Cassarea and baffled the malice of the 
J ews. While Festus waited for an opportunity to send 
Paul to Rome, he was visited by the young king Agrippa 
and his sister Bernice. To these royal visitors Festus 
related the case of St. Paul, and Agrippa expressed a 
desire to see and hear the strange prisoner. The de- 
sire was granted, and the next day was set for the 
hearing. 

When it came, Agrippa and Bernice and Festus with 
royal parade entered the audience-room. As soon as 
the governor had explained to the king the facts of his 
arrest in Jerusalem and his appeal to Rome, Agrippa 
said to him, "Thou art permitted to speak for thyself." 
Then Paul, stretching forth his hand to arrest attention, 
answered for himself. What a trying moment was this 
for the apostle ! Before him sat Agrippa, the son of that 
Herod who had slain St. James and arrested and impris- 
oned St. Peter. On the one side, his princely sister Ber- 
nice, brazen with incestuous crime; and on the other, 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



65 



Festus, whom the emperor Nero had appointed Procura- 
tor of Judea. In attendance upon these were the Chil- 
liarchs, the great officers of state, the nobility of the 
province, filling up the audience-room with the insignia 
of royalty and rank, of military and municipal power. 
In their midst stood Paul, small of stature, clad in sim- 
plest toga, and attended by the sentinel to whom he 
was chained as a prisoner. 

Was not Paul dazzled by this display of royalty and 
power — those flashing helmets — those gleaming swords 
— those polished spears ? Was he not daunted by the 
looks of the king and his wicked sister — by the stern 
gaze of the stern Festus — by the frown of the cour- 
tiers — by the dark scowl of the soldiers ? Did not his 
tongue falter, and his knees tremble, as he stood be- 
fore so august an assemblage ? Behold the scene ! The 
king — the prisoner; the crown on the head of the one 
— the chain on the wrist of the other. Eoyalty, power, 
wealth, in their concentrated form, seated before him ; 
and he, a solitary disciple of the despised and crucified 
Nazarene, bound, guarded, standing alone in the midst 
of this display of pomp and power, stretching forth his 
hand to speak for himself and for Jesus ! 

He dazzled ! The eyes that had been made blind for 
three days, by the vision of Damascus, when J esus re- 
vealed himself to him in a glory above the brightness 
of the sun at mid-day, were not to be dazzled by any 
mortal splendor. He tremble ! The man who counted 
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge 
of Jesus Christ had not a muscle in him to quiver at 
any human presence. He falter ! The tongue which 
had been commissioned by Jesus to witness for Him 
before kings and rulers had been so taugh£by the Holy 
5 



66 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



Ghost that it knew no faltering accent before the great 
ones of the earth. 

But hark ! the apostle begins to speak for himself — 
all sounds are hushed in that vast audience. His open- 
ing allusions to Agrippa arrest attention by their cour- 
tesy and truth. He proceeds, gathering strength and 
energy with each sentence — his burning thoughts, his 
nervous words, his impassioned utterance, his glowing 
eye, his whole form swelling and rocking with intense 
earnestness, as he relates the scene of his wondrous con- 
version outside the gates of Damascus, together with 
the subduing effect of his speech upon the hushed and 
soul-thrilled audience, alarms the Pagan governor, and 
he cries out with a loud voice, " Paul, thou art beside 
thyself; much learning doth make thee mad ! " Thus 
checked in the torrent of his eloquence, the prisoner 
meekly answered, "I am not mad, most noble Festus; 
but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. For 
the king knoweth of these things, before whom also, I 
speak freely" — and then, by a bold stroke of oratory, 
he turns to Agrippa and says, " King Agrippa, belie vest 
thou the prophets?" Perceiving, perhaps, the embar- 
rassment of the king at this unexpected question, he del- 
icately answers it himself by saying, " I know that thou 
believest." The earnestness of his words, and the pun- 
gency of his appeal to his personal knowledge of many 
of the facts of Christ's life and teaching; roused into 
action the torpid conscience of the young monarch, and 
hardly aware, perhaps, of the full force of his own 
words, uttered, it may be, half in jest, half in earnest, 
or wrung from him by the power of Paul's speech ; he 
says, in the words of my text, "Almost thou persuadest 
me to be a Christian." Such a tribute to his eloquence 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



67 



was met by the apostle with blandest courtesy ; and, lift- 
ing up his chained hand, he replied to the half-convicted 
monarch, "I would to God, that not only thou, but 
also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and 
altogether such as I am " — and then, as if suddenly re- 
membering that he was a prisoner in chains, he touch- 
ingly adds, " except these bonds." As he thus finished 
this master-piece of holy eloquence, we can imagine how 
the long pent-up feelings of the audience relieved them- 
selves in almost murmurs of applause at the oratory; 
while yet they condemned the cause for which he so 
boldly plead. The result was that they mutually agreed 
that Paul had done " nothing worthy of death or of 
bonds." Thus, as Chrysostom says, the Jews who thus 
persecuted Paul and sought to slay him were con- 
demned by Lysias — were condemned by Felix — were 
condemned by Festus — were condemned by Agrippa, 
and ultimately God condemned them and destroyed 
their temple and their city for their hostility to the 
Gospel which Paul was commissioned to preach. Truly 
this whole scene stands before us as a grand Scriptural 
cartoon, painted by St. Luke with that simple majesty 
of words; which is at once art's highest seal and glory; — 
only he does what other painters can not do, he makes 
us hear words, as well as see persons; — he unfolds to us 
the inner thoughts, as well as outward aspects, of the 
actors in this assembly. 

Such were the circumstances under w r hich the words 
of the text were uttered. 

They express, however, not merely the feelings of 
King Agrippa, but of a large class of men who may be 
termed the almost Christians; men who occupy this 
semi-religious, yet most insecure and dangerous state. 



68 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



This class, however, has several divisions, a few of 
which I propose to notice. There are — 1st. Those who 
are intellectually convinced of the truth of religion, 
and are consequently theoretical believers. The larger 
part of those who are intelligently acquainted with the 
Bible assent to its truth. It is so fortified with proofs 
of its divinity, within and without; it is so wonderful 
in its manifold prophecies ; it is so elevating in its teach- 
ings; it so meets the moral necessities of our race; so 
unfolds the past and reveals the future; so explains 
God's dealings with man and man's relations to God; 
so provides for human peace and joy here and for eter- 
nal bliss hereafter — that there are only a few wilfully 
deluded men who reject or disbelieve the Bible. In the 
early days of Christianity, to believe the Scripture and 
to show it forth in a holy life were mostly simultane- 
ous acts. But in these days, since the religion of Jesus 
Christ has obtained a strong foothold ; and especially 
since that religion has proved itself the foremost ele- 
ment of power in whatever is elevating in civilization, 
refining in society, stable in freedom, or noble in mind ; 
fashioning by its plastic power the most potent gov- 
ernments, the best literature, the purest art, the high- 
est social polity of the world — now, alas! belief of 
the truth, and practice of its precepts, are too often 
disjoined; and an intellectual or theoretical assent to 
Christianity, is often coupled with the most practical 
disregard of its duties. 

It is indeed strange, when viewed in the abstract, 
that truths so momentous in themselves, and so vital to 
the interests of the soul, if believed at all, should not be 
followed by a practice conformable to that belief; be- 
cause such conduct is contrary to all known principles 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



69 



of human conduct in worldly matters. Let a man be 
convinced of the truth of any doctrine, or the propri- 
ety of any course of conduct which promises him tem- 
poral advantage; and how quickly does he carry into 
active practice his mind's belief; yet there are multi- 
tudes of men who believe the Bible to be God's word 
who do not receive it into their lives as a matter of 
living faith. Like Agrippa they believe the prophets, 
and yet will not do what the prophets require. 

If religion were a matter of the intellect only, such 
men would be saved; but salvation reaches us, not so 
much through the faculties of the mind, as through the 
affections of the heart; for the mind, by its clear power 
of reason, may be forced to accept as true that which 
the heart dislikes, and refuses to acknowledge, or obey. 
We are saved, not by believing Christianity as a system, 
but by believing in, and accepting Christ as a Saviour. 
It is not by embracing the truth as it is in Jesus, by the 
processes of the intellect; but by embracing Jesus Him- 
self as our personal Redeemer, that we secure salvation. 
To whatever height, then, speculative belief in Christ or 
Christianity may go, if it reaches not the point of a per- 
sonal faith, in a personal and divine Saviour, it is only 
making a man an almost Christian. Simon Magus be- 
lieved and was baptized, and yet the apostle distinctly 
says of him, that he had neither part nor lot in this: 
u for thy heart is not right in the sight of God." This 
differentiates the Christian from all other religions and 
all other philosophies; they are all based on dogmas 
and beliefs, but the Christian on a Person. 

This leads me to mention as another class of almost 
Christians, "the intellectually and morally convinced, 
but hesitating ones." These are far in advance of the 



70 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



last class, for these are not only convinced in mind, but 
recognize the moral obligation resting upon them to 
believe, and yet hesitate to commit themselves by a de- 
cided act of faith into the arms of Jesus. The large ma- 
jority of those who habitually attend the stated means 
of grace come under this head. They believe the Bible, 
and they believe that it is their duty to embrace the 
Saviour whom that Bible reveals. Ask any of them if 
it is not so, and they will reply, yes. Yet they go no 
further; they keep striking the margin of true reli- 
gion, often touch its boundary line, yet fail to take the 
needed step that would plant their feet upon the Kock 
of Ages ; and so they remain hesitating and uncertain 
in the valley of decision. Many of this class are pat- 
terns of worldly morality and goodness. Their attend- 
ance in the sanctuary, and reverence for divine things, 
and liberality towards the institutions of the gospel, 
cause them to be admired and beloved. Yet it is all 
external — it does not spring from an inner heart-faith 
in Jesus. It is the result of early moral training, or 
the influence of association, or an attempt to work out, 
in their own strength, their salvation. 

A scribe, pleased with the words of Jesus, entered 
into conversation with Him, and asked " Which is the 
great commandment in the law ? " Our Lord fully re- 
plied to this question, and the scribe said unto Him, 
"Well, Master, Thou hast said the truth: for there is 
one God, and there is none other but He ; and to love 
Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, 
and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to 
love his neighbor as himself, is more than all burnt- 
offerings and sacrifices." St. Mark adds, that when 
Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, He said unto 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



71 



him, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." 
Here was a case of one intellectually and morally con- 
vinced of the truth, yet hesitating and irresolute as 
to carrying out his convictions to their logical result. 
What was wanting in his case, was that he who had 
such a good understanding of the breadth and spiritu- 
ality of God's law, should come out actively on Christ's 
side ; that he should not remain on the border land of 
indecision — no longer halt between two opinions, but 
translating knowledge into practice, and belief into 
confession, embrace Christ, and take his place as a 
professed disciple. Hence, though not far from the 
kingdom of God, he was yet outside of that king- 
dom, nor could he ever pass the separating line, until 
he deliberately and fully enrolled himself on the side 
of Jesus ; for Jesus has Himself declared, " He that is 
not with me is against me." 

So long, then, as you fail to take those active steps 
which will place you beside Christ and His Church 
as an open and recognized follower, you are only an 
almost Christian. Early religious training has a most 
blessed influence in shaping and beautifying the life, 
giving to it a high-toned morality ; but morality is no 
substitute for faith — morality is no saviour. The world, 
indeed, may admire your exemplary life, and to the 
eyes of men who look at you from a worldly standpoint 
and see you in the twilight of an earthly atmosphere, 
you may be regarded as good and noble; yet to Him 
who seeth not as man seeth, who measures you by 
the measuring rod of eternal right, who beholds you 
in the revealing glare of His divine glory, you may 
be a grievous sinner ; for man looketh at the outward 
appearance, but God looketh at and jud^eth the heart, 



72 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



and we can have no lot or part with Him in heaven 
unless our hearts are right in His sight ; and this they 
can only become through the sprinkling of them with 
the blood of Jesus. God has declared, " without the 
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins," and 
as when the blood of the paschal lamb was first slain 
in Egypt, it was not enough that the victim was killed 
and his blood shed: — but drops of that blood were to be 
sprinkled on the doors of their dwellings ; thus bring- 
ing the blood to every family and every house, and thus 
only securing exemption from the visit of the destroy- 
ing angel who passed that night through all the land 
of Egpyt, slaying all the first-born in every house un- 
protected by blood; so it is not enough that Christ 
has shed His blood on the cross, that blood must by 
faith be sprinkled on the door of each heart. There 
must be a personal application of that blood by faith to 
cleanse our guilt and secure our pardon; and only as 
faith does thus put upon the soul the blood drops of 
Calvary, have we a right or title to the kingdom of God. 

Another class of almost Christians comprises those 
who fail to give up some one thing, or fail to secure 
some one thing, the giving up of which, or the obtain- 
ing of which, is necessary to insure salvation. My 
meaning will be best understood by two illustrative in- 
stances taken from the Bible. 

As our Lord was passing along, "there came one run- 
ning, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, 
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ? " " Je- 
sus answered, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the com- 
mandments." "All these things," said the young man, 
"have I kept from my youth up," and pressed upon our 
Lord the further question, " What lack I yet ? " 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



73 



Here was one who seemed to recognize to a cer- 
tain extent the goodness and authority of J esus ; who 
evinced a laudable anxiety to secure eternal life ; who 
in carrying out that desire had done many right and 
dutiful things by an outward conformity to God's law. 

" What lack I yet ? " Our Lord, as St. Mark records, 
"beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One 
thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou 
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure 
in heaven : and come, take up the cross, and follow 
me." He who searched the heart knew what the one 
thing lacking was, and hence put His probing finger on 
the defect, and made the young man see himself in a 
truer light than he had ever seen himself before. What 
was the result ? " He was sad at that saying." What 
did he do? "He went away grieved." Why? "For 
he had great possessions." The one thing which he 
lacked was a willingness to give up his besetting sin ; 
That besetting sin was covetousness. He preferred to 
keep his possessions rather than give them to the poor ; 
he preferred the treasure on earth to the treasure in 
heaven ; he preferred ease, to taking up a cross, and the 
following of his own will, to following Jesus. 

This most instructive case shows us how near, how 
very near, a person may be to the kingdom of heaven, 
yet fall short of it. They may lack but one thing — the 
giving up of a besetting sin; the willingness to make 
a personal sacrifice for Christ; the refusal to take up 
some cross ; the drawing back from a full following of 
Jesus. Some one single sin, some one single difficulty, 
may thus obstruct the soul's entrance into heaven, and 
prevent one from becoming an altogether Christian. 
One sin deliberately persisted in will surely keep the 



74 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



soul out of heaven. One known duty deliberately dis- 
regarded will certainly secure your condemnation. And 
a refusal to take up a cross and bear it after Jesus, must 
result in being only an almost Christian, and so fail of 
eternal life. 

The other illustrative case, showing the other side 
of the same truth, — viz., that the absence of one thing 
may keep you out of heaven, — is found in the para- 
ble of the ten virgins. Here the lack of " oil in their 
lamps " kept five of the ten from entering into the mar- 
riage feast, In the case of the young man, he lacked 
the willingness to give up the one thing that he had, 
his wealth ; and the holding on to this proved his ruin. 
In the case of the foolish virgins, they failed to obtain 
the one thing which they had not, viz., oil, and the 
lack of that one thing, not only excluded them from 
the festal hall, but drew upon them the rebuke of the 
lord of the feast, "I know you not," Yet, mark how 
nearly alike those five virgins who did not enter, were 
to the five, who did enter. They were alike virgins ; — 
alike in their outward attire ; — alike in carrying lamps ; 
— alike in going forth to meet the bridegroom ; — alike 
in that they all slumbered and slept while the bride- 
groom tarried ; — alike arose and trimmed their lamps at 
the midnight cry "go ye out to meet him": — and only 
at this critical hour comes out the fatal point of differ- 
ence ; — that while the wise virgins had oil in their lamps 
the foolish virgins had none, and to them, because they 
lacked this, "the door was shut." This oil in the lamp, 
and without which it will not burn, represents the re- 
newing and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in the 
heart. We are thus taught, that we may have all the 
outside marks of a Christian ; that we may for a long 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



75 



time be regarded as such not only by ourselves but by 
others ; yet for lack of this oil of grace in the soul, this 
unction of the Holy Ghost, only reach the door of heaven 
to find it shut ; and only knock with the passionate en- 
treaty " Lord, Lord, open unto us," to hear from within 
the withering reply, " Verily, verily, I say unto you I 
know you not." 

The condition of the almost Christian — of the one 
who is not far from the kingdom of God, of him who 
lacks but one thing — is peculiarly insecure and danger- 
ous. How often have we noticed that a man may live 
all his life near some grand object in nature, such as 
Niagara Falls, and yet never visit them; because, be- 
ing so near to them, he thinks that he can at any time 
he chooses go to them, and hence his very nearness 
causes him to delay and procrastinate and never make 
the oft -purposed visit; while thousands and tens of 
thousands will traverse seas and continents to visit or 
gaze at those majestic falls whose voice is as the sound 
of many waters. So it is in spiritual things. Because 
men know so much of the truth, understand its claims, 
and have so much of religious reverence and sensibil- 
ity, they imagine that they can easily take the step 
which will make them altogether Christians — easily 
bridge over the narrow space between the "not far 
from the kingdom " and the kingdom itself, and at 
pleasure supply the " one thing " lacking; and so they 
rest content, procrastinate, and die at last almost Chris- 
tians ; while thousands and tens of thousands who were 
u afar off" — who were " aliens and strangers to the 
covenant of promise," who lacked not one, but many 
things — press into the kingdom, become altogether 
Christians, and are saved. You can not be told with 



76 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



too much emphasis, that no matter how much of an 
almost Christian yon are, if yon are only almost, you 
are not a true Christian, and hence must be lost. It 
matters not how near you may be to the kingdom of 
God, you may be so near indeed that you might touch 
its walls if you stretch forth your hand, or pass its gate 
if you took but one step, yet if you are only near it, you 
are not in it ; and outside of it you must . perish. It 
matters not that you lack but one thing — and that per- 
haps a very little thing — for if you continue to lack 
and die lacking it, you can not be saved. It is the aim 
of your soul's adversary to make you rest contented in 
this closeness to the kingdom, in this almost Christian 
state. He will rather aid you in getting into this posi- 
tion, in the hope that once there, he can keep you there, 
flattering your soul with false hopes, deceiving con- 
science with false positions, and cajoling you into that 
self-satisfied condition, which is the sure precursor of 
eternal death. 

I can hardly picture to myself a person in more im- 
minent danger than an almost Christian. A man on 
the verge of a religious profession, yet held back by the 
lack of some one thing — the lack of moral courage to do, 
what reason and conscience and the Bible urge him to 
do ; come out boldly in the name of J esus, and avouch 
him to be your personal and only Saviour, and make 
Him yours by a personal and a living faith. Do this 
and you will make practical, what before was theoret- 
ical. Knowledge will be transformed into duty ; and the 
one condition Avhich the almost Christian lacks to make 
him an altogether Christian, will be supplied. That fac- 
tor is faith, that personal belief in and acceptance of 
Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Kedeemer, which unites 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



77 



us to Him as the branch is united to the vine, so that 
we have a oneness of life with Christ on earth, and a 
oneness of glory with Him in heaven. 

Be persuaded, then, to continue no longer in this dan- 
gerous, this insecure, this almost Christian state. Come 
out on the Lord's side. Take your place as Christ's dis- 
ciple ; for so long as you remain hesitating and unde- 
cided, you are putting in jeopardy your salvation ; are 
disobedient to God's commands; are setting at naught 
Christ's blood ; are doing despite to the Holy Ghost ; and 
are weaving the winding sheet of your immortal soul. 



VII. 



FOLLOW THOU ME. 
1 1 What is that to thee? follow thou me."- John xxi. 22. 

After our Lord's resurrection, lie met a few of His 
disciples by the shore of the Sea of Galilee. In that in- 
terview, He put to Peter, three times, the question, 
"Lovest thou me?" and as Peter had previously three 
times denied his Lord, now he three times declared his 
love and faith, and three times did the risen Saviour 
recommission him, as it were, to his apostleship, by the 
threefold direction — " Feed my sheep." 

Our blessed Lord then went on to say, " Verily, verily, 
I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest 
thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldst ; but when 
thou art old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hand, and 
another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou 
wouldst not. This He spake, signifying by what death 
he should glorify God; and when He had spoken this, 
He said unto him, Follow me." It seems that Jesus 
then moved forward, and Peter with Him. They had 
gone but a little way, when Peter, turning round and 
seeing John following, asked Jesus, " Lord, what shall 
this man do?" as if he had said, "You have told me 
what will befall me in my old age. Now what about 



FOLLOW THOU ME. 



79 



John — what will be his fate?" To this question, our 
Lord replied, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what 
is that to thee? follow thou me." Thus his indiscretion 
and curiosity were rebuked. He was virtually told that 
it did not become him to be asking about things which 
did not pertain to his own specific duty. That duty was 
to follow Christ; leaving others to their own responsi- 
bilities and duties. 

The one simple duty laid on each one is to follow 
Christ. Yet, as in Peter's case, so now, many hesitate 
and stop and turn about and seek to settle certain other 
questions before they obey. They ask to have this doubt 
resolved, that doctrine made clear, that mystery unrav- 
elled, and so put off the real work of personal salvation 
for side issues and idle questionings of no real conse- 
quence or value. 

In dealing with the men of His day, our Lord ever 
repressed this spirit, this itching desire, to know the un- 
knowable, and to pry into secrets which it is " the glory 
of God to conceal." When one asked Him, " Lord are 
there few that be saved ? " He answered, " Strive to 
enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, 
will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." When an- 
other asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven?" He took a little child, and set him in the 
midst, and said, " Except ye be converted, and become 
as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
heaven." Thus He ever restrained this reaching out of 
the mind into fruitless inquiries; this seeking to be 
wise beyond what is written; this warding off of per- 
sonal duty by a questioning curiosity. 

Here is one who hears Christ's command, "Follow 
me"; but instead of doing that promptly, he, as it were, 



80 



FOLLOW THOU ME. 



stops and asks, But, Lord, about this difficulty in the- 
ology, I can not reconcile God's sovereignty and man's 
free agency, liberty and necessity. I do not see the re- 
lation of sacrifice to satisfaction. I can not unravel the 
mystery of the Trinity. These, and many other similar 
questions, are virtually the replies which many make 
to the call of Jesus, u Follow me." It may not take this 
definite shape, but, more or less, it enters into many a 
mind roused to duty by Jesus' call and yet stifling the 
claim of duty by questionings about related truths or 
unsolved difficulties. But if you do not obey Jesus 
until all these questions are answered, and these diffi- 
culties removed, you will wait forever, so far as this 
world is concerned. 

These difficulties and mysteries necessarily result from 
the relations between God and man. God the infinite — 
man the finite; God the holy — man the sinner; God a 
Spirit — man a creature of flesh and blood ; God in heaven 
— man on earth ; God inhabiting eternity — and man the 
creature of a day; God the Sovereign of the universe — 
and man the tiny, puny rebel to His throne. Mark these 
contrasts; measure their diversity. The very statement 
of them shows how impossible it is for man to be able 
to comprehend God or His dealings. The question was 
asked of old, " who, by searching, can find out God? 
who can find out the Almighty?" and Solomon, the 
wisest of men, declared, " It is the glory of God to con- 
ceal a thing"; for if man knew as much as God, he must 
needs have the mind of God and the wisdom of God. 

For eighteen hundred years the mind of man, with 
its sounding lead, and its measuring lines, has been 
endeavoring to feel bottom, and compute the measure- 
ments of those great truths; and yet they are no nearer 



FOLLOW THOU ME. 



81 



solution now than when first revealed. There they stand 
in the firmament of theology, the great unresolvable 
nebulae of revelation; and no magnifying power of 
man's optics, and no space-penetrating power of man's 
devising, can unfold those mysteries, which at once 
challenge, and test, the faith of man. There can be no 
revelation of God free from mysteries, because human 
language can not embody celestial thoughts and modes 
of divine existence; and the human mind could not 
comprehend terms and phrases which would truly re- 
flect the person, glory, and work of the Almighty. 
Divine thoughts, before they can be taken into our 
minds, have to be diluted into human words; divine 
things, have to be symbolized to us by human or 
worldly types; and divine beings, have to be described 
to us by terms borrowed from human existences and of 
purely worldly signification. Hence, in the process of 
translation, dilution, and illustration, no one attribute 
of God, no one truth of God, no one phase of grace, 
can be fully revealed. We can only see the earthly 
side and the earthly terminus; the heavenly side and 
the heavenly starting-point, are all beyond our ken — 
far up out of sight; and there we must be content to 
let it be, ever standing with our eyes upturned to Jesus, 
holding in one hand the great doctrines of revealed 
truth, and in the other the precious assurances — " What 
I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know here- 
after," "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then, 
face to face : now I know in part ; but then shall I know 
even as I am known." 

Though human reason, in consequence of its finite 
capacity and moral infirmity, can not solve these diffi- 
culties ; yet there is a method of solution at once sim- 
6 



82 



FOLLOW THOU ME. 



pie and satisfactory. It is the simple formula which Je- 
sus gives. " If any man will do his will He shall know of 
the doctrine whether it be of God," i. e., in the act of 
obedience to God's will, we learn the truth and reason 
of the will which w T e obey. As it is said in the book 
of Ecclesiasticus, " Mysteries are revealed to the meek, 
and he that keepeth the law getteth the understand- 
ing thereof." This is proved to be true by the expe- 
rience of every humble child of God before whose daily 
doing of God's will all doubts and difficulties subside, 
and he can say with sublime faith, " I know in whom 
I have believed." 

Here is another who, when Christ calls, " Follow me," 
turns about, and says, But, Lord, what about these dif- 
ferences between science and revelation? I must wait 
until I see these discrepancies removed, and until I see 
the two brought into accord, lest I commit myself to 
some false theology or unscientific revelation. To this 
class let me say, that the Bible w^as given you for the 
simple purpose of telling you about God and the way of 
salvation. Its one great teaching is — man is a sinner, 
and Christ is a Saviour, and man can be saved from the 
guilt and penalty of sin only by faith in that Saviour. 
This truth it teaches with sunlight clearness. It is 
what you must know or perish. It is the only book 
that teaches it. He is the only Saviour revealed from 
heaven. If this Book and this Saviour are set aside, 
you give up the only chart by which you can navigate 
safely the sea of life, and the only Pilot who can steer 
your soul into the haven of rest. If some one of the 
hundreds of unfortunate passengers in the steamship 
Schiller, when it struck the rocks, and the cry was made, 
Save yourselves by the life-boat ! had said, Stop ! I must 



FOLLOW THOU ME. 



83 



first find out how the ship got on this reef — I must first 
satisfy myself that this life-boat is properly constructed — 
what would have been said of such a man ? That was 
no time to discuss questions of tides and drifts and vari- 
ations of compass and the scientific principles of life- 
saving apparatus; the man had something else to do. 
The ship was settling in the water ; the waves were 
breaking her up ; he must escape or drown ; the life-boat 
was at hand, cling to it, he is saved; reject it, he is lost. 

What if science, as at present understood, and the 
Bible do not agree ? Shall we be troubled thereat ? I 
trow not. I rejoice to know that what is termed mod- 
ern science, and the Bible, do not agree. I should be 
sorry if they did. Modem science is changeable — the 
Bible is unchangeable. The science of to-day is not 
the science of last year, and will not be the science 
of the next. The Bible of to-day is the Bible of all 
the Christian centuries and will be a thousand hence, 
just what it was nearly eighteen hundred years ago, 
when the canon of Scripture was closed. Mark the 
changes which have taken place along the whole line 
of sciences since the beginning of this nineteenth cen- 
tury. What a catastrophe then would it have been, 
had it been proved that the Bible and science as known 
at the beginning of this century fully agreed! that 
all the assertions of the Bible could be quadrated with 
the facts of science as then understood! The great 
tidal waves of science which have rolled over the world 
since, would have left the Bible stranded and ruined. 
And so now, could it be made clear to-day that every 
truth in the Bible accords with the received facts of sci- 
ence, what would become of the Bible fifty years hence 
when science will have moved on with even more rapid 



8± 



FOLLOW THOU ME. 



strides, and left behind more wrecks of theories and 
more stranded speculations? In the meanwhile, the Bi- 
ble stands still in the solitary grandeur of its own per- 
fection. It waits, as the ages roll on, for confirmation 
and acceptance. It was said by one of old, " God is 
patient, because He is eternal," and the Bible, as the 
book of the God of truth, has this attribute of its divine 
Author. Its strength is to sit still. It goes not out 
hastily to meet a half-formed science and embrace it as 
an ally, lest it should turn into a foe. It calmly tarries 
in the consciousness of its own truth as the advances of 
science come nearer and nearer, and every advance of 
true science does bring it nearer to the Bible. The op- 
position to that Bible comes only from a class whose ut- 
terances St. Paul has justly characterized as "the pro- 
fane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely 
so called." True science, like the wise men of the East, 
brings to the holy Jesus its magian gifts, and bows ador- 
ingly at His feet. Science falsely "so called," like Herod, 
asks hypocritically of the same wise men, Where is the 
new-born Jesus? but asks not to worship, but to destroy; 
not to crown Him king, but to massacre with a sword. 

After all, what have these questions between religion 
and science really to do with your salvation ? They are 
questions which can not be settled, because science is 
not settled ; and science will not be settled, so long as 
there is an undiscovered fact in nature, or an inquiring 
mind in man. The one thing for you to do is to follow 
Jesus. All other questions will adjust themselves; but 
unless you follow Him, you must be forever lost. 

Here is another, who, when Jesus says, " Follow me," 
turns about and, Peter-like, asks, But, Lord, what about 
these people who make a profession of religion, but who 



FOLLOW THOU ME. 



85 



I know from their daily life are not true Christians? 
What shall these men do? Methinks I hear Jesus re- 
ply, What is that to thee ? Will you shut yourself out 
of heaven because of other men's hypocrisy? This world 
is the world of discipline and probation, where charac- 
ter is formed and tested — the other world is the world 
of judgment and separation, where results are reckoned 
and awards pronounced. 

The religion of Jesus Christ has to work upon a to- 
tally depraved nature and in the midst of a sinful world. 
Let these two important factors never be forgotten when 
estimating any work of grace in fallen man. There must 
of necessity be flaws and defects, by reason of the defect- 
ibility of the nature on which it works and of the de- 
filed world in which it operates. This has been so from 
the beginning of Christianity. Among the twelve dis- 
ciples there was a Judas. Among the converts on the 
Day of Pentecost there were an Ananias and Sapphira. 
Of the Seven Churches of Proconsular Asia, among 
whose Seven Candlesticks walked the Son of God, all 
were faulted, but one. The parables of the tares and 
wheat and of the net cast into the sea and filled with 
fishes good and bad; are designed to teach us not to look 
for perfection in the present ordering of things ; but, on 
the contrary, that deceit and hypocrisy and evil living 
are to be expected even in the Gospel field, the Gospel 
net, and the seven-branched candlestick. 

What if there are hypocrites in the Church, will you 
add to your sin by tying their's around your neck? 
Will you refuse to recognize the good and the true and 
act up to your known duty, because among those who 
profess and call themselves Christians are many who 
only have a name to live, but are spiritually dead ? Is 



86 



FOLLOW THOU ME. 



this the principle which you act on in daily life ? Do 
you decry all merchants because some are knaves? Do 
you discredit all banking institutions because some are 
worthless ? We must each stand on our individual char- 
acter, and we shall each be judged for our personal do- 
ings, and no hypocrisy of others will excuse or even pal- 
liate our disobedience to our Lord's command, " Follow 
thou me." 

Who is it who commands you to follow Him ? Is it 
some great philosopher ? Some wise statesman ? Some 
world-renowned hero ? Yes. He is all this, and much 
more. Jesus Christ is the greatest of all philosophers, 
of all statesmen, of all heroes. But this is a low and 
earth-born view of Christ. For raising ourselves to a 
higher plane of thought, we find that He who com- 
mands us to follow Him, has declared Himself to be 
"the way, the truth, the life." Tlie way to God is only 
found then by following Him who has said, " No man 
cometh unto the Father, but by me." TJie truth of God 
— the truth which is in J esus ; the truth by which alone 
we are sanctified; the truth that only sets men free in 
the true liberty of the child of God is found only as 
we follow Christ, the Incarnate truth. The life — that 
eternal life, that life with God in His heavenly kingdom, 
that life over which the second death hath no power — 
we can find only as we follow Jesus; for the apostle 
John declares " this is the record, that God hath given 
unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Jesus 
again declares, " I am the light of the world," being *to 
man s spiritual nature what the sun is to man's physical 
being; the sun in the moral heavens, the great light 
that rules the spiritual day; and so he that would be 
truly enlightened can find this light only as he follows 



FOLLOW THOU ME. 



87 



Jesus, who has declared, " He that folio we th me, shall 
not walk in darkness; but shall have the light of life." 

But this call must be promptly obeyed. It brooks no 
delay. When, on one occasion, Jesus called out to a 
man " Follow me," he replied, " Lord, suffer me first to 
go and bury my father"; Jesus answered, "Let the dead 
bury their dead." When, on another occasion, one said 
to Jesus, "Lord, I will follow Thee; but first let me go 
and bid them farewell, which are at my house." Jesus 
replied, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, 
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom." Nothing can 
take precedence of this call — "Follow thou me." Noth- 
ing can warrant its postponement. Nothing atone for 
its neglect. It is the first, the greatest, duty of to-day ; 
for "now is the accepted time; behold! noiv is the day 
of salvation." 



VIII. 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 

"The woman then left her water-pot, and went her way into the city, 
and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that 
ever I did : is not this the Christ ? Then they went out of the city, and 
came unto Him." — John iv. 28-30. 

In the interesting conversation which the woman of 
Samaria had with Christ, He told her of the emptiness 
and unsatisfying nature of earthly comfort, of the ex- 
haustless fulness of his grace, of the spiritual character 
of God and the true worship which He required, of the 
displacement of the merely sensuous and local in wor- 
ship by that which is spiritual and universal, and then 
he had crowned this sublime teaching by the equally 
sublime, but startling, declaration to her of His being 
the Messiah, the hope alike of the Samaritan and the 
Jew. 

The words of J esus reached the heart of the woman ; 
her understanding was opened to receive the truth ; she 
drank it in as indeed living water from a living well- 
spring, and so completely was she possessed with the 
marvellous declaration of Christ being the Messiah that, 
forgetful of her errand to the well of Jacob, she "left 
her water-pot, and went her way into the city, and saith 
to the men, Come, see a man which told me all things 
that ever I did. Is not this the Christ ? " In answer to 
her appeal, the sacred narrative says, "Then they went 
out of the city, and came unto Him." 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



89 



Here, then, we have the simple sketch of a mission- 
ary woman, and the first woman who ever preached 
Christ to those who were aliens and strangers to the 
commonwealth of Israel. Anna, the prophetess, had 
spoken of 1 1 im, when a babe, to all who looked for re- 
demption in Israel ; but this woman was the first to 
speak of Him to the Samaritans. She may, therefore, 
properly be regarded as the first Christian missionary 
woman. Looking at her in this light, let us use her 
example as a theme by which to discuss what a woman 
can do for Christ, what a woman ought to do for Christ, 
and ivhy she ought to do it. 

In endeavoring to understand what a woman can do 
for Christ, we must gauge her ability by her mental 
powers, her physical constitution, her moral develop- 
ment, and her social position. With regard to her mind, 
there is no truth of revelation which she is not fully 
capacitated to grasp and understand as well as man. 
With regard to her physical constitution, it is eminently 
adapted for the sphere in which God designed she should 
move, in the orbit of the family circle, — a wife, a mother, 
a daughter, a sister. With regard to her moral powers, 
she has in even a higher degree than man the elements 
which make up a religious character, — faith, love, hope, 
and zeal. Her nature is more gentle, her heart more 
impressible, her affections more easily moulded, and her 
mind more open to holy influences. With regard to her 
social position, she stands as a wife, a mother, a daugh- 
ter, a sister, a teacher, a nurse, a friend, at the very well- 
spring of man's power and greatness; and can exercise 
her plastic influence in infancy, in childhood, in hours 
of sweetest love, in the quiet of the family circle, in 
seasons of distress and sickness, in times and ways 



90 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



which are only open to a woman's love, and which con- 
sequently place in her hands opportunities of influence 
higher even than pertain to the sterner power of man. 

The ability of women to do great things being thus 
established, I proceed, next, to show what a woman 
ought to do for Christ. She ought, first, to give her 
heart to Christ. Woman's heart is formed for love. 
Love is one of the elements of her power, and by its 
exercise she almost rules the world. In the person and 
character of Christ there is presented to her heart the 
most lovely and love-inspiring Being in the universe. 
The heart of woman is attracted by virtue. In Christ 
is found the highest assemblage of virtues. Woman 
loves what is noble, honorable, generous. Jesus blends 
these qualities in amplest harmony. Woman's homage 
is drawn out by greatness of mind, breadth and depth of 
knowledge, profound wisdom, persuasive eloquence, and 
commanding influence ; who then can better claim this 
homage than Jesus, "in whom dwelt all the treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge." Woman's love is excited 
by deeds of benevolence, by self-sacrifices in the cause 
of others ; and who has larger claims on her love, then, 
than Jesus, whose benevolence towards mankind led 
Him to sacrifice Himself on the cross for our salvation. 
There is nothing that is worthy of attracting woman's 
love, which is not found in the character of Christ in the 
very highest degree; and according to the very princi- 
ples which should regulate the outgoings of her own 
affection, she ought to love Jesus Christ with a fulness 
and devotion surpassing that given to any mere human 
being. 

I wonder not that more women than men love Christ ; 
my only wonder is that all women who know of Christ 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



91 



do not love Him. They will admire the character of 
some hero of romance ; they will yearn for the love of 
some noble and generous champion of benevolence and 
goodness; they will delight in the favor of some distin- 
guished military chieftain, some great writer, some elo- 
quent orator, some able jurist; — why will they not love 
and admire and adore Him in whose character every 
virtue meets, and no vice is found; in whose mind all 
wisdom centres, and no folly exists; in whose heart all 
goodness dwells, and no sin abides ; in whose soul there 
is a benevolence that embraces the world in its love; 
in whose life there was a self-sacrifice before which all 
earthly heroism fades; in whose works there was a 
nobleness and grandeur with which not all the military 
glory of the world can compare ; in whose death there 
was a blessing born to man, without which the world 
would have rolled on its allotted years in its pathway of 
sin and then been hurled into the blackness of darkness 
forever. Every woman who does not love Christ, con- 
tradicts the very first principles of her nature. Every 
woman who does not love Christ, does violence to the 
dictates of her conscience, her judgment, and her heart. 
Every woman who does not love Christ, dishonors her 
own soul by denying entrance into it of the purest, 
highest, holiest love which is embodied in the Saviour 
of the world. 

So soon as a woman loves Christ, and has gone to Him 
as her soul's Saviour, then it is her duty to tell others of 
Christ; and imitating the zeal of the woman of Samaria 
say, Come, see Him. Come, hear Him. Come, love Him. 
Is not this the Christ of the prophecies ? Is not this the 
Christ you need? But you may ask, how can she do 
this, when the apostle, and the voice of the whole Chris- 



92 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



tian church, forbid her preaching or teaching in the 
great congregation? I answer, let her tell others of 
Christ, and let her do work for Christ, in her several 
spheres and relations of life. Is she a wife and has she 
an unbelieving husband ! Let her, by her holy life, her 
winning gentleness, her persuasive love, seek to con- 
firm the assertion of the apostle — that " the unbelieving 
husband is sanctified by the believing wife." Is she a 
mother ! Let her " learn to show piety at home," that her 
daily walk and conversation may be a daily sermon dis- 
tilling its truth as the dew upon the hearts of her house- 
hold, as they behold in her the beauty of holiness. It 
is in a mother's power to mould in a great measure the 
mental and moral future of her offspring, and the say- 
ing is as true as it is terse — " They who rock the cradle 
rule the world." It was a touching little anecdote which 
was told me, during the preparation of this sermon, by 
one of my parishioners, and illustrates most forcibly the 
truth which I have just stated, that on asking her little 
grandson, who had just finished reading the " Pilgrim's 
Progress," which he liked best, Christian or Christiana ? 
he replied, after a moment's thought, " I like Christiana 
best; for when Christian went, he went alone; but when 
Christiana set out, she took her children with her." 

A holy home influence will, by God's added blessing, 
make a holy household, and this is peculiarly a woman's 
work ; for in her keeping is the infant yet budding mind ; 
in her control are the opening affections of the heart; in 
her guardianship the springing sensibilities of the soul. 
Placed at these head springs of spiritual and intellectual 
power, she exerts an influence no man can wield; for 
she moulds whole generations before the schoolmaster 
teaches the first elements of education. 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



93 



Is she a sister? What a powerful influence can a 
loving, gentle sister exercise over even rough and way- 
ward brothers ! She can restrain, when curbing is nec- 
essary; she ran direct, when guidance is required; she 
can encourage, when a cheering word is needed; she 
can nurture, when there is a virtue to cherish, as no 
man can do. There is a moral magnetism about a 
godly sister, which acts positively, in calling out good 
qualities, and negatively, in repelling vices in a brother's 
bosom. The drawing or repelling influence is ever felt, 
and few men have become thoroughly bad who have 
had pious sisters. 

Is she a daughter? The blendings of filial love with 
youthful piety are eminently beautiful to a parent's eye, 
and produce effects in a parent's breast which no mov- 
ing eloquence of man can beget, and it can be her privi- 
lege, as it is her duty, to win them to Christ. 

Nor do a woman's duties stop at the circumference of 
the family circle. She is a member of society. Society, 
be it high or low, is what woman makes it. Men do not 
control society, but are controlled by it ; they come into 
it from their trades, their counting-houses, their offices, 
their professional duties, and yield themselves to the 
influences which are already at work within that circle, 
set in motion by women. The tone of society is always 
what the moral tone of woman is. Let that be re- 
fined, sound, and religious, and society becomes pure 
and pious. She is shut out from the pulpit, because, 
St. Paul says, " Let your women keep silence in the 
churches." She is shut out from the caucus and polls, 
because modesty, purity, and every feminine virtue for- 
bids her going there. She is shut out from the glory 
to be gathered in slaying men on the field of battle, 



94 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



because a woman's hands were not made to be imbrued 
in blood. She is shut out from the bar and the senate 
because her mind is not made to deal with the ques- 
tions, or contend with the parties which meet in those 
arenas. But there is still open to her a large outlying 
territory where she can work to equal if not greater 
advantage than man, and where her labors have already 
told for good in a most wonderful manner. 

In the Sunday-school field, woman finds an appro- 
priate sphere. She is particularly fitted by God for 
instructing and moulding youthful mind and affections, 
and hence she makes the best teacher of children, espe- 
cially in Bible truths and in moral culture; and no 
woman has ever fully entered into this work who has 
not been able to say, in spirit if not in words, 

1 ' Delightful work ! Young souls to win 
And turn the rising race, 
From the deceitful paths of sin, 
To seek the Saviour's face ! " 

Again, take up the list of benevolent institutions in 
which woman can labor with propriety and effect, and 
see what a wide scope is here given to her active and 
useful powers : in homes for the orphan, refuges for chil- 
dren, institutions for the relief of poverty and distress, 
as also in reformatory, disciplinary, and crime-prevent- 
ive societies. In all these associations woman finds a 
befitting and noble sphere of Christian labor, where the 
eye of a God of love bends its benign look upon her deeds, 
and the benison of a God of mercy, rewards her toil. 

Look again at another and almost unoccupied field 
where Christian female influence is needed, but lacking. 
I mean Hospitals and Infirmaries. In the rebound which 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



95 



Protestantism made from Romanism in the fifteenth cen- 
tury, the Reform Churches swung far away from the 
whole system of monasteries and nunneries and relig- 
ious orders; and, in condemning them, aimed not so 
much at reforming the abuses, as breaking up the sys- 
tem itself. But while the principles of many of the 
religious orders of the church of Rome are contrary to 
God's Word, injurious to the church, and baneful to the 
individual; some of them were good, and, if properly 
regulated, might, and ought, to be again engrafted into 
the working machinery of Protestant benevolence. 

The question arises — shall this vantage-ground be 
occupied by the Church of Rome alone ? or shall Prot- 
estants be afraid to call out and subsidize this latent 
power, because the Church of Rome has surrounded 
these institutions with error, superstition, and ecclesias- 
tical tyranny. It is a matter of rejoicing that the Prot- 
estant communities are waking up to a sense of their 
deficiencies on this matter, and to the importance of 
establishing some kind of sisterhoods or institutions 
where pious Protestant women can devote their time, 
talents, and energies to the noble work of following in 
the footsteps of Jesus, who, when on earth, "went about 
healing all that were sick," and proving himself the 
Great Physician of the soul by being the Great Phy- 
sician of the body. In England, and on the Continent, 
there are many of the Protestant institutions which, 
freed from all the objectionable features of the Romish 
Church, retaining all that is valuable Avith the added 
elements of a pure faith and sound worship, are doing 
great good, and quietly working their way into favor 
with all branches of the Reformed Church. 

Our blessed Lord made the healing of the sick the 



96 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



medium through which he often cured the soul, and he 
told his disciples, as they went up and down Judea, 
Heal the sick. The apostles did this to such an extent 
that not only were handkerchiefs taken from their bodies 
carried to the sick and laid on them, but even the sick 
were brought out into the streets, that at least the shadow 
of Peter passing by might heal them. The early Church 
felt it to be one of her special duties to provide for the 
sick and the needy. Hence hospitals arose at once, the 
outgrowth and the exponent of Christianity ; and if the 
hospital is emphatically characteristic of the beneficent 
spirit of Christianity, why should not the nursing of the 
sick in hospitals and elsewhere in the abode of the poor 
and the wretched be also an emphatic mark of Christian 
character? especially when our Lord, putting Himself in 
the position of one in prison, one naked, one hungered, 
one sick, said to those who questioned, " When saw we 
Thee sick, or, in prison, and came unto Thee ? " replied, 
44 Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." And I hope 
that the time is not far distant, when much of the now 
not only unoccupied, but absolutely wasted, talent of 
our pious women will be organized into efficient instru- 
mentalities for serving Christ, after the pattern of Christ, 
and in the spirit of Christ, and for the glory of Christ. 

And yet once more let me beg you to look at the 
mission field, and mark there what woman can do for 
Christ. As a wife to cheer and comfort her toiling 
missionary husband ; as a mother training up in a pagan 
land a model Christian family; as a teacher fitted to in- 
struct old and young; as a pious female exhibiting to the 
eyes of the heathen, who have ever degraded women, a 
type of lofty womanhood, made such by the elevating 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



97 



power of the religion of Christ ; and as a nurse to the 
sick, a counsellor to the afflicted, and an example to 
native females seeking entrance to the fold of Christ, 
the pious woman finds in the missionary work one of 
the noblest fields of mental, physical, and moral labor, 
one worthy her noblest powers, one absorbing her deep- 
est affection, one that makes her a co-worker with God, 
and makes her rank with those women which St. Paul 
says labored with him in the Gospel. Some of the most 
successful missionaries have been women, and their faith, 
labors, example, prayers, wisdom, have been produc- 
tive of blessings to the heathen which no arithmetic can 
compute. I regard the true-hearted missionary woman, 
she who, under the constraining love of Christ, leaves 
home, friends, country, and devotes her life to labors 
painful and self-denying among the heathen, that she 
may teach them the way of salvation through faith in 
Jesus Christ, — 1 regard such a woman as the noblest of 
her sex. Poets who burn the incense of praise, in the 
censers of verse, to the titled and the beautiful, may offer 
no perfume to her ; painters who catch the glowing radi- 
ance of the beauty that dazzles royal courts, may sketch 
no likeness of her; sculptors who make the cold marble 
almost breathe with the glowing charms of regal loveli- 
ness, may never deign to model her form ; biographers 
who daguerreotype the gay life of the courtiers may not 
honor her with a single memorial ; the world that seeks 
for glitter, for pomp, for sensation, may pass her by un- 
cared for: but the Holy Ghost cares for her and adorns 
her with the ornaments of his beautifying grace ; Christ 
cares for her and gives her the title to an inheritance in 
heaven; God cares for her, and has a mansion prepared 
for her in glory; and when the votaries of fashion and 
7 



98 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



of pleasure, the peeresses, the princesses, the queens of 
earth, shall be stripped of their courtly robes and crowns, 
and be driven, as most of them will be, from the presence 
of the Lord, then -will these missionary women receive, 
in the presence of the assembled universe, the plaudit — 
" Well done, good and faithful servant." The works of a 
Dorcas at Joppa, of a Phoebe at Cenchrea, of a Lydia at 
Thyatira, of the beloved Persis at Eome in the apostles' 
times : the deeds of a Paula in Palestine, of an Hellena 
at Constantinople, of a Fabiola at Eome, in the primi- 
tive church ; and the wonderful labors in our own day 
of a Mrs. Fry in ameliorating the prison systems of 
England ; of a Mrs. Chisholm in softening the rigors of 
penal emigration; of a Mrs. Hill, in rousing up the 
female mind of Greece; of Ann Judson as showing the 
endurance and heroism of a missionary's wife ; of a Cath- 
arine Marsh who has taught us what a holy mind and 
will can do with " English hearts and hands," and a Flor- 
ence Nightingale who has introduced the most whole- 
some reforms into the whole department of military 
and civil hospitals and made known to us what women 
can and ought to do as nurses, for the sick and the af- 
flicted, — have illustrated what woman can do for Christ, 
and shown the almost supernatural strength which is 
lodged in her soul, that only needs some great stimulus 
to develop it into healthful exercise. These evince the 
power and actings of a woman's faith, the zeal and 
energy of a woman's works; the depth and glow of a 
woman's love. 

And now, in conclusion, let me say a few w T ords upon 
the question — Why a woman should consecrate herself 
to Christ? And the simple answer is — because Christ 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



99 



has done every thing for her. He honored woman by- 
condescending when He took upon Himself our nature 
to be born of a woman. It is through Christ alone that 
woman has been elevated. Where the gospel of Jesus 
does not prevail, she is degraded and dishonored. There 
is no country on the face of the earth where woman is 
not debased, except where the religion of Christ pre- 
vails: and just in proportion as that religion is pure and 
active, is the female sex elevated and refined. 

Did you but know the sad condition of woman in 
Pagan lands, and how fearfully the enmity of the ser- 
pent has been manifested against the daughters of Eve ; 
and could you contrast their darkness with your light, 
their debasement with your refinement, their pollution 
with your purity, their servitude with your freedom, 
their superstition with your living faith, their dwarfed 
and stinted minds with your growth and development, 
— you would feel that you were indeed raised to heaven 
in point of privilege. Yet for every step in this ascend- 
ing series of blessings you are solely indebted to Christ ; 
and could Christ's influence and teachings and Church 
be now blotted out, not half a century would pass ere 
the shadows of a coming night of barbarism and deg- 
radation, would fall upon the female sex, deepening in 
blackness until her glory, which now shines like a sun 
full-orbed in the social firmament, diffusing light and 
love and joy, would be totally eclipsed, and a darkness 
that might be felt, would brood like midnight over the 
world. 

But Christ has done more for woman than merely 
given her this high social position. In all the relig- 
ions of the world outside of Judea, though elysiums and 
heavens of bliss were offered to men, none- were offered 



100 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



to woman except as to an inferior being. If she en- 
tered elysium, it was merely to serve man. If the 
Koran gave her admission to heaven, it was only to be 
the slave of man's lust. There was for her no hope of 
the future in any of the systems of man's devising. To 
the entire mind of female heathendom, the future life 
was an abyss across which no ray of light gleamed, and 
she lived almost a brute's life and died a brute's death, 
scarcely knowing that she had a soul, ignorant of the 
life beyond the grave. But Christ brought life and 
immortality to light for the whole race. To a woman 
was first confided the secret of the Saviour's incarna- 
tion; at a woman's suggestion was wrought the first 
miracle which Jesus exhibited; to a woman it was first 
announced that Christ was the Messiah ; to a woman 
was first made the sublime declaration, "I am the Ees- 
surrection and the Life"; to a woman Christ first ap- 
peared after His resurrection: and in all this He fore- 
shadowed the new position which woman was to hold 
in the Christian system. Her faith was to be the same 
as man's; her hope based on the same atoning blood 
that his was; her love drawn out by the same Being 
whom man loved; the Church which was to enfold man 
was to enfold her also; the places of assembly where 
man was to worship were to be shared by woman ; the 
truth which was preached to man was to be taught to 
her ; the promises which were held out to the one were 
equally given to the other ; the Saviour in His precious- 
ness was no dearer to man than to woman ; for her, as 
well as for man, Christ had conquered death and hell ; 
the door which He opened into heaven admitted her 
with man ; and the mansions which He went before to 
prepare, were to be occupied by woman, not as a pan- 



THE MISSIONARY WOMAN. 



101 



derer to man's impurity, not as a slave to his lust, not 
as an ornamental companion to his house and his feast 
in paradise, but as a fellow-heir and a fellow-laborer 
and a fellow-believer in Christ; fitted for the same in- 
tellectual pursuits, sharer of the same spiritual glory. 
This, then, is the reason why you should love and labor 
for Christ, lie has redeemed you, sanctified you, saved 
you, enlightened you, elevated you, honored you, and 
given you equal rights with man to an inheritance in 
heaven. Not a blessing of the gospel that is not yours ; 
not a hope of glory that is not yours. As woman's 
heart is formed for faith, she ought to exercise it toward 
Him who alone is the Author and Finisher. As wo- 
man's heart is formed for hope, it ought to anchor itself 
on Him who is within the vail, even Jesus Christ. 

Emulate the conduct of this humble Samaritan peas- 
ant. Listen to Christ when He speaks to you in His 
Word. Be taught of Christ the great truth which will 
make you wise unto salvation ; and when you have re- 
ceived Christ into your own heart, go forth, as she did, 
within the circle of your influence, and tell the name 
and fame of Jesus; wake up all around you an inter- 
est in Him; be the missionary woman in your house, 
your church, your community, your country; and rest 
not, until, having brought others to Jesus, you can have 
the satisfaction of hearing them say, "Now we believe, 
not merely because of thy saying; for we have heard 
Him ourselves, and know of a truth that this is the 
Christ that should come into the world." 



IX. 



THE BOOK OF PRAYER FOR THE HOUSE OF 

PRAYER. 

"Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. " 
Isaiah lvi. 7. 

Under the Mosaic economy the temple which Isaiah 
here calls God's house, was emphatically a " house of 
prayer " in the enlarged sense of the word prayer, which 
in this place means worship. The temple service was 
not confined to the offering up of prayers, but sacrifices 
were slain, incense was burned, psalms were sung, and 
well-drilled choirs with vocal and instrumental music 
filled the court of the Lord with sublimest song, as their 
antiphonal or choral strains rose like the sound of many 
waters unto heaven. 

When, therefore, God speaks of His house being " an 
house of prayer for all people," He intimates that the 
privileges which the Hebrew had of worshipping God 
in the temple, should be extended to all people. It is, 
in fact, a prediction which finds its truest fulfilment, 
now that the material temple of Jerusalem is demol- 
ished, for the true worship of God, which was then lim- 
ited to one locality, is now co-extensive with the Church 
of Christ, as it is set up among the nations of the earth. 
It is as if He had said, " There shall be in all nations a 
house dedicated to my service, in which shall be offered 
unto me true and holy worship." 



THE BOOK OF PRAYER. 



103 



The germ which lies at the root of all worship of 
God, is the aim to glorify God, and this is true of all 
worship, whether offered on earth or in heaven. This, 
indeed, is the great end of man s creation, as God Him- 
self says, " 1 have created him for my glory." 

But we can glorify God only as we truly know God, 
and rightly worship God. Our worship is shaped by 
our knowledge ; our knowledge is the very basis of our 
worship. We know God aright only as we acquaint 
ourselves with Him through His revealed word; we can 
worship God aright only through the means of His own 
appointment, and those are prayer and praise. These 
are the elemental principles of all true worship on earth. 

But how shall we offer this prayer and praise in the 
great congregation ? We can not, each one for himself, 
speak out his own thoughts and emotions, for this would 
not be either decently, or in order. We must have a 
mouth-piece, and it is one of the chief functions of the 
ministry to lead the worship of the assemblies of God's 
people. 

But how, again, shall this mouth-piece guide our wor- 
ship ? Shall he conduct it with extemporaneous prayer 
and praise ? We say at once, no, with regard to praise ; 
for we do not expect the minister, even though he might 
possess the poetic talent of a Milton, or Cowper, to rise 
and compose a psalm or an anthem at the moment, im- 
provising the praise which the congregation are to offer 
to God; nor do we expect the organist or the choir, 
though the one was equal to Handel, and the other to 
the trained singers of the Sistine Chapel, to extempo- 
rize the music which shall be sung to the words of the 
minister. 

But if we never lift up the voice of thanksgiving and 



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melody, without careful preparation; if all our public 
praise of God is precomposed, and offered according to 
a definite formula, why should not our public prayer be 
likewise precomposed, and set in form, before the mind 
of the offerer ? Why should one of the great elements 
of worship, and that one the most important and influ- 
ential upon our lives and hearts, be left to the moment- 
ary and fluctuating fancies and feelings of the minister; 
and the other be carefully prepared in advance, be set 
to well-arranged and published music, and be sung out 
of a recognized praise-book? Is the one of less moment 
than the other ? The apostle Paul places them on the 
same level when he says, " I will pray with the spirit, 
and I will pray with the understanding also ; I will sing 
with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding 
also." And yet if in the public worship of God we can 
sing with the spirit and sing with the understanding, 
only by uniting in precomposed forms of praise; is it 
not also true, that in the same public worship we can 
pray with the spirit and pray with the understanding 
best, when we unite in a precomposed form of prayer ? 
We say unhesitatingly then, that the mouth-piece of the 
congregation should, in prayer as well as praise, lead 
the worship according to a pre-established form, put 
forth by proper authority in the church. In this as- 
sertion we are confirmed, by the usage of the temple 
service, by the worship of the synagogue, by the words 
and the deeds of our Lord and His apostles, by the tes- 
timony of the early Fathers, and by the liturgic experi- 
ence and liturgic yearnings of the Christian world. 

Shall we, however, permit each congregation to form 
its own Liturgy ? This would introduce a rivalry and 
confusion that would mar the worship of God, and occa- 



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105 



sion much wangling and discord in the Church. Be- 
sides, no congregation is stable ; it is composed of fluc- 
tuating elements, its members are ever changing; and 
uneasy spirits would frequently be seeking to alter es- 
tablished usages and forms, to suit the whims, or fashion, 
or theology, of those who have itching ears and godless 
hearts. That which would be acceptable to-day, would 
be rejected to-morrow ; and a Liturgy, instead of being, 
as it should be, an anchor, holding the ark of Christ's 
church to the mooring-ground of eternal truth, amidst 
drifting currents and tossing seas and wrecking gales ; 
would be as the dog-vane on the quarter-deck, blown 
about by every wind of doctrine, indicating nothing but 
the direction of the popular breeze, as it veered through 
all the cardinal points of the theological compass. 

It being, then, improper for a congregation, in its 
worship of God, to permit each person to speak for 
himself; it being improper for the mouth-piece of each 
congregation to utter his own crude and ill-digested 
words of prayer in behalf of the people who should, but 
can not, truly unite with him; and it being improper 
that each congregation should frame its own Liturgy, 
and thus have a thousand forms clashing with and jos- 
tling each other in every Christian nation; the question 
again arises, Wherewith shall we come before the Lord, 
when we would worship Him in the beauty of holiness? 
And the answer which I give is this : Enter into God's 
House of Prayer with that Book of Prayer, which, framed 
by the constituted authorities of a great national church, 
shall most truly glorify God the Father ; most truly exalt 
God the Son; most truly honor God the Holy Ghost; 
most truly reflect the spirit and doctrines of the Bi- 
ble ; most truly bear upward the devotions of the people ; 



106 



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most truly guide the praises of the congregation; and 
most truly unite us with the Holy Catholic Church, that 
blessed company of all faithful people, in all places and 
in all ages of the world. 

Can we find such a Liturgy ? I answer, Yes. " The 
Book of Common Prayer and the administration of the 
Sacraments of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the 
United States of America," answers to each of these re- 
quirements of public worship, and hence, is the true 
Book of Prayer for our House of Prayer. 

A few remarks under each of these heads will, I think, 
establish this general assertion. 

I. The Book of Prayer for the House of Prayer should 
most truly glorify God the Father. 

Not an attribute of God is, in our Prayer Book, over- 
looked, or obscured. He is there brought before us in 
the purity of His holiness, the grandeur of His perfec- 
tions, and the wonders of His grace ; for the Prayer Book 
generally speaks of God in God's words, and if the Bible 
is a full-length portrait of a revealed Deity, drawn by the 
hands of men made skilful by the Holy Ghost; the Prayer 
Book is that same portrait in miniature, preserving each 
distinct feature, the scale reduced, but the likeness the 
same. 

With what profound reverence are we taught to ap- 
proach God ! Mark the beginnings of all our prayers. 
There is no familiar chatting with Him, as with an 
equal; no telling Him of the events of the day, as 
though He knew them not; no preaching to Him with 
closed eyes, as if He were one of the congregation; and 
no making His ear to tingle with the sounding brass of 
a brazen rhetoric, designed to draw out the admiring 
exclamation, What a beautiful! or, What an eloquent 



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107 



prayer ! but, on the contrary, all is solemn, humble, rev- 
erential, self-abasing, as it respects ourselves ; all is enno- 
bling and glorifying, as it respects God. The first act 
of the worshipper in our courts, is to bow before God in 
silent prayer ; the first words which break the stillness 
of the church, are the words of God; the first exhorta- 
tion to the people, is to confess their sins before God; 
and thus are we led along, through all the varied and 
sublime manifestation of God's attributes and grace, as 
seen in the absolution, the chants, the creed, the lessons, 
the prayer, the law, the gospel, and epistle, until, as at 
the commencement of our service, so at its close, the 
last words uttered by the minister are God's, the last 
act of the worshipper the bended knee of prayer to God. 

II. The Book of Prayer for the House of Prayer should 
most truly glorify God the Son. 

That our Liturgy does this, is obvious to every one 
who will read its pages. Of the two hundred prayers 
in the Book of Prayer, every one of them is offered, 
directly or indirectly, as our Lord has taught us to do, 
in His name. His own prayer, which He taught His 
disciples to pray, is introduced into each distinct service 
of our Church. The Litany, after its opening cries for 
"mercy" to the several persons of the ever-blessed Trin- 
ity, continues its supplications in one unbroken series 
of petitions to J esus Christ, pleading with Him, by all 
the solemn events of His holy life, to deliver us "from 
every evil which the craft and subtilty of the devil or 
man worketh against us " ; beseeching Him to hear us 
in all the requests which we make for peace and bless- 
ing, summing up the whole with an appeal to Him as 
fche Son of God, and the Lamb of God, to hear us, and 
to "have mercy upon us"; and this not once, nor twice, 



108 



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but with repeated supplications to Him, ending with the 
yearning cry of the minister, u Both now and ever, 
vouchsafe to hear us, O Christ," to which the hearts of 
the people respond, " Graciously hear us, Christ; gra- 
ciously hear us, Lord Christ." 

The Christ-elevating character of our Liturgy is also 
seen in the prominence given to Him in the construction 
of its several services. Look at the order for the admin- 
istration of the Lord's Supper, and see how every thing 
is designed to develop the doctrine of Christ's vicarious 
death and atoning sacrifice for sin. How, in the Con- 
fession do we plead, "for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's 
sake, forgive us all that is past." How does it bring 
to our ears "the comfortable words our Saviour Christ 
saith unto all who truly turn to Him ! " How do its 
acts of consecration, oblation, and invocation, cause the 
death and passion of Jesus to pass vividly before the 
soul ! How do the words which accompany the distri- 
bution of the elements tell of " Christ's body given for 
thee " — u Christ's blood shed for thee ! " How does that 
prayer of thanksgiving assure the faithful participant 
"that we are very members incorporate in the mystical 
body of Christ, which is the blessed company of all faith- 
ful people ! " 

So with the Baptismal service. It is Christ's precious 
words, " Suffer little children to come unto me," which 
invite parents to bring their babes to Him ; it is Christ's 
baptism in the river Jordan which "did sanctify water 
to the mystical washing away of sin" ; it is Christ's prom- 
ise, " Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall 
find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you," which is 
made the occasion of the earnest plea of the second col- 
lect of that service; it is Christ's words, "written by St. 



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109 



Mark," which constitutes the divine part of the Bap- 
tismal contract; it is Christ's cross which is marked 
upon the infant's forehead; it is u into the congregation 
of Christ's flock," that the child is received; it is "the 
faith of Christ crucified," that the baptized one promises 
not to be ashamed to confess; it is " Christ's faithful 
soldier and servant," which he covenants to be "unto 
his life's end"; and in the exhortation to the godfathers 
and godmothers, is summed up, in one compact sen- 
tence, the whole duty of our profession, "which is to 
follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be 
made like unto Him*" 

I might thus analyze all the services, and Christ is in 
them all as the very core and kernel of each. 

But particularly is the Christ-elevating character of 
the Book of 1 'raver seen, if we examine for a moment 
the arrangement of our services. Open the Prayer Book 
at the calendar, and we see marked four Sundays in 
Advent. What mean these ? they are put there to tell 
us Christ is coming, and to prepare our hearts for His 
glorious advent. Then comes " Christmas," to tell us 
Christ is born in Bethlehem; then " Circumcision," to 
show us that Christ "was made under the law"; then 
"Epiphany," to teach us how Christ was manifested to 
the Gentiles; then " Ash -Wednesday," and the Lent- 
en season, when the Church steadily contemplates her 
Lord, as He is about to be betrayed and given up 
into the hands of wicked men; then the dark events 
of " Passion -Week " and " Good Friday," when we stand 
under the dense shadow of one of the olive-trees in 
Gethsemane, and see the agony of the Eedeemer, or 
kneel beside His cross, that the great blood-drops of sal- 
vation may fall upon our hearts; then the joyous shout 



110 



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of " Easter," the world's shout, "The Lord is risen!" 
■ — then the glorious "Ascension," when Jesus Christ 
was exalted "with great triumph unto His kingdom 
in heaven." 

Thus, year by year, the Church, in her Prayer Book, 
unrolls before her children, as in a panorama, the great 
events of our Lord's life, in their fulness, richness, and 
variety. It is Christ coming, Christ living, Christ suf- 
fering, Christ dying, Christ rising, Christ ascending, 
Christ interceding, Christ coming again to judge the 
world, that is ever kept before the hearts of the peo- 
ple. Every service is full of Christ, He is glorified and 
praised on every page of the Book of Prayer. 

III. The Book of Prayer for the House of Prayer 
should most truly glorify God the Holy Ghost. 

The work and offices of this third Person of the ever- 
blessed Trinity are stated and enforced with clearness 
and unction in the service. His grace is implored in 
the declaration of absolution ; His divinity is recognized 
in every " Gloria Patri," and in the opening sentences 
of the Litany. One of His special offices is brought out 
in the "Te Deum." His "procession" is developed in the 
Nicene Creed; and in the Collects for " Quinquagesima " 
and Whitsunday and St. Barnabas, His work and offices 
are specifically stated. It is the blessing and sanctifying 
power of the "Word and Holy Spirit" which is invoked 
in the prayer of consecration at the Holy Communion. 
It is to the Holy Spirit that the whole process of regen- 
eration is referred, in the office of Baptism. It is the 
seven-fold influences of the Comforter that are implored 
in the first prayer of the Confirmation service, and the 
special blessing invoked by the bishop as he lays his 
hands upon the head of the kneeling candidate is, "that 



FOR THE HOUSE OF PRAYER. 



Ill 



he may continue Thine forever, and daily increase in 
Thy Holy Spirit more and more until he come unto 
Thine everlasting kingdom." In the form of Solemniza- 
tion of Matrimony, " God the Holy Ghost " is especially 
called upon "to bless, preserve, and keep" the newly 
married pair. In the office for the Burial of the Dead, 
it is the Spirit's voice which is quoted as giving author- 
ity to the sentence, " Blessed are the dead which die in 
the Lord." The first question asked of the candidate for 
the diaconate, as he presents himself before the bishop, 
is, " Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the 
Holy Ghost to take upon you this office and ministra- 
tion ? " Over the head of the kneeling candidate for the 
priesthood is said by the bishop and minister the sol- 
emn " Veni Creator Spiritus." And around the bended 
form of him who is to be advanced to the Episcopate is 
said, not only one of those hymns of the Ordinal which 
so peculiarly set forth the work and office of the Com- 
forter, but when the hands of the Consecrators are laid 
upon his head, he is made a bishop by the words, 44 Re- 
ceive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a bishop 
in the Church of God, now committed to thee by the 
imposition of our hands." 

A special day, "Whitsunday," is set apart, wherein 
to consider His peculiar work; and another special day, 
" Trinity Sunday," wherein to study His Divinity; and 
ever is this " Lord and Giver of Life " recognized, hon- 
ored, and glorified in the ritual of our holy worship. 

IV. The Book of Prayer for the House of Prayer 
should most truly reflect the spirit and doctrines of the 
Bible. 

We must worship God not only in spirit, but in truth. 
We can not pray aright unless we are sound in the faith. 



112 



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The doctrines of the Bible are necessarily interwoven 
with our prayers. In a most striking manner does our 
Liturgy embody the doctrines of divine truth. Not a 
doctrine necessary to salvation, that is not stated in 
some one of the collects, petitions, or ascriptions of the 
Prayer Book. 

How is the omniscience of God taught in the collect, 
"Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all de- 
sires known, and from whom no secrets are hid," etc. 
How is the omnipresence of God taught in the collect, 
"0 God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all 
things, both in heaven and earth," etc. How is the 
omnipotence of God declared in the collect, " Almighty 
God, the Sovereign Commander of all the world, in 
whose hand is power and might which none is able to 
withstand." How is our "original or birth-sin" stated 
in the words of our morning and evening confession, 
"We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost 
sheep, we have followed too much the devices and de- 
sires of our own hearts, ... and there is no health in 
us." How is the holiness of God declared in the " Trisa- 
gion," when "with angels and archangels, and all the 
company of heaven, we laud and magnify His glorious 
name." How is the necessity of the new birth expressed in 
the first exhortation in the Baptismal office — and so on 
through all the leading doctrines of grace; the Prayer 
Book expresses them mostly in the words of the Bible, 
always in its spirit. The commission under which Cran- 
mer and his colleagues acted in compiling our Liturgy, 
required them "to consider and ponder the premises, 
and therefore having as well eye and respect to the most 
sincere and pure Christian religion taught by the Scriptures, 
as to the usages in the primitive church, should draw 



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113 



and make one convenient and meet order, rite, and fash- 
ion of common and open prayers," etc. This they did 
so faithfully that, as Bishop Jeremy Taylor well says, 
"The Liturgy of the Church of England was, with great 
deliberation, compiled out of the Scriptures, the most of 
it; all the rest agrees with Scripture." With prayers 
thus instinct with the great truths of theology, the very 
marrow and fatness of the word of God ; and with a the- 
ology turned into prayer, and working its way through 
our affections into our hearts and minds; we are emi- 
nently prepared to pray with the spirit and with the un- 
derstanding, and to worship God in the beauty of holi- 
ness, through that form of prayer which reflects so 
clearly and purely the doctrines and the spirit of the 
Bible. 

V. The Book of Prayer for the House of Prayer should 
fully bear upward the devotions of the people. 

These devotions should consist of confession, peni- 
tence, implorations, ascription, and thanksgiving. They 
should be sober, solemn, reverential, filial, scriptural — 
offered in faith, and presented in the name of the ever- 
living Intercessor. Such, emphatically, are the devo- 
tions of the Prayer Book. Framed mostly in Biblical 
language, they "smell of the myrrh, aloes, and cassia" 
stored up in the ivory palaces of God's Word, out of 
which they were taken; while the Litany, that mar- 
vellous collection of beseechings, and adjurations, and 
strong crying of the soul to Christ for mercy, is the 
alabaster box, very precious, which penitence brings 
each Lord's day, and breaks and pours upon the head 
and feet of Jesus, until the whole House of Prayer is 
filled with the odor of the ointment. 

VI. The Book of Prayer for the House of Prayer, 

8 



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THE BOOK OF PRAYER 



should be a proper vehicle of the praises of the people. 
David represents God as "inhabiting the praises of 
Israel." What a sublime thought! God is said to dwell 
in light; that is, it centres in Him and radiates from 
Him. God is said to inhabit eternity ; that is, time past, 
time present, time to come, is an ever-present now with 
God. And so He is said to inhabit the praises of Israel; 
that is, He is at once the theme and the source of all 
the praises of His people. He never moves away from 
them — never hushes them — never tires of them; they 
ever fill His ear, ever float around His throne ; and as 
heaven is all light, so that they need not the sun or the 
moon to lighten it, because He who dwelleth in light is 
there ; and as heaven has an eternity of bliss, because 
He who inhabiteth eternity is there ; so it is full of praise, 
because the Holy One who inhabiteth the praises of Is- 
rael is there. 

Praise is the most elevating part of worship. Prayer 
prepares for praise. We can not praise Gcd unless prayer 
has first tuned the strings, and given the key-note to 
the heart ; — but when the heart thus attuned is struck 
by the hand of praise, then will its chords respond with 
heavenly melodies ; its gushing feelings will leap forth 
in bounding joy ; and its high notes of gladness, as well 
as its softest tones of submission, will delight the ear 
of Him who inhabiteth the praises of Israel. 

Those who have not examined the subject will be 
surprised to find how essential an element of worship 
praise is, and how much it is intermingled with the ex- 
perience and services of God's people in all ages of His 
church. There is scarcely a great event in the religious 
history of the world, that is not marked with exhibi- 
tions of praise. When God "laid the foundations of the 



FOR THE HOUSE OF PRAYER. 



115 



earth," " the morning stars sang together, and all sons 
of God shouted for joy." 

When the Israelites passed out of Egypt, beheld the 
destruction of their enemies, and were " baptized unto 
Moses in the cloud and in the sea" — the great national 
baptism which constituted them a national church — 
they celebrated the event with one of the most magni- 
ficent acts of praise the world has ever heard. Six hun- 
dred thousand men, with Moses at their head, and tens 
of thousands of women, with timbrels and harps, led by 
Miriam, sung in responsive strains that song which told 
of their deliverance, and which opened with the tri- 
umphant shout, " I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath 
triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He 
thrown into the sea." What lofty stanzas ! What reci- 
tative strains ! What thrilling antiphon ! What a swell- 
ing chorus ! The scene, the song, the sound, combine 
to make it one of the sublimest acts of praise in the 
annals of the world. 

When David brought up the ark of the Lord from the 
house of Obed-edom to the tent which he had pitched 
for it in Jerusalem, it is recorded, "thus all Israel 
brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord, with 
shouting and with sound of the cornet, and with trum- 
pet, and with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries 
and harps." But that which emphatically distinguishes 
this day and scene from others in the Jewish calendar, 
is the fact that then was given to the Church the first 
of those Psalms which the sweet singer of Israel wrote* 
to the praise and glory of God. That was the birthday 
of our divine Psalter ; its infant voice was first heard as 
Asaph, and his brethren, circling about the tent which 
contained the ark, sung with the accompaniment of 



116 



THE BOOK OF PRAYER 



harps, and cymbals, and trumpets, and cornets, the 
psalm which the king had written and recorded in the 
sixteenth chapter of the First Book of Chronicles, and 
the one hundred and fifth psalm of David. The royal 
psalmist, with a musician's ear, a poet's imagination, and 
a sanctified heart, made Poetry and its twin-sister Music 
integral elements of worship; his glorious odes were set 
to notes by the several masters of song; psalm followed 
psalm, until there was given to the Church of God a 
body of lyric poetry, which for depth of emotion, lofti- 
ness of praise, breadth of meaning, and length of use, 
can never be excelled. 

When Solomon consecrated the temple which he had 
built for God, a consecration scene the like of which the 
world has never since beheld, he incorporated into the 
gorgeous ritual for that day the service of song. And it 
is a remarkable fact, that it was not until the singers 
had praised the Lord, that the Lord descended in the 
visible symbol of His presence, and filled the house 
with His glory; for, says the sacred narrative, "it came 
even to pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one, 
to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking 
the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the 
trumpets and cymbals, and instruments of music, and 
praised the Lord, saying, For He is good, for His mercy 
endureth forever : that then the house was filled with a 
cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests 
could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for 
the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God." 

When God would make known to the shepherds the 
news of the birth of Christ, He sends a multitude of the 
heavenly host to sing the birth-hymn of the Saviour 
above the plains of Bethlehem. And most fit it was, 



FOR THE HOUSE OF PRAYER. 



117 



that the birth-hour of the Christian dispensation, like 
the birth-hour of creation, and the birth -hour of the 
Israelitish Church, and the birth-hour of the temple ser- 
vice, should be ushered in by songs, such as please the 
ear of God. 

When Christ instituted the memorials of His death, 
He taught His Church ever to link praise with that holy 
sacrament, by singing with His disciples a hymn before 
He rose from the table, and went out with them to the 
garden of Gethsemane. 

With such teaching from God's Word, we say no pub- 
lic worship is acceptable to Him, in which the element 
of praise does not largely enter. Most happily and fully 
is it incorporated with our service. It is the most spir- 
itually jubilant worship on earth. It repeats the praises 
of the Bible more truthfully and fully than any other 
formulary. 

When we have such materials of praise, in such rich 
abundance, should not the worship of our Church be 
more instinct with praise and thanksgiving ; should we 
not "make a joyful noise before the Lord"; should we 
not obey the injunction of the apostle, "offer the sacri- 
fice of praise continually, that is the fruit of our lips, 
giving thanks to his name ? " 

Lastly : the Book of Prayer for the House of Prayer 
should give us liturgical alliance with the Holy Cath- 
olic Church, in all places and in all ages. 

The Church Militant is now just what it was when first 
founded by Christ — his mystical body. The members 
have changed, but its foundations have not changed — 
its sacraments have not changed — its doctrines have not 
changed — its rule of faith has not changed — its glorious 
Head has not changed. Our Liturgy, therefore, should 



118 



THE BOOK OF PRAYER 



repeat to ns the great themes and modes of worship used 
in apostolic and primitive times, that we may trace lit- 
urgic, as well as ministerial, lineage with the Church in 
its first and purest age. All the Liturgies of the world 
can be traced back to the Liturgy of St. James, entitled 
the Great Oriental Liturgy; the Liturgy of St. Mark, or 
the Patriarchate of Alexandria; the Koman, which can 
be traced back nearly to the apostolic age, and the Gal- 
lican, or that used by the churches in Gaul, and tradi- 
tionally ascribed in its leading features to Irenseus and 
Poly carp, the disciple of St. John. These are the four 
original trunks from which have branched forth the 
various Liturgies of the eastern and western world. 
Many have regarded these as distinct and independent : 
distinct they are, but not independent; distinct like the 
four rivers which Moses describes as going forth out 
of Eden, one compassing the whole land of Havilah, 
one surrounding the whole land of Ethiopia, one going 
toward Assyria, and one watering the plain of Mesopo- 
tamia, but each finding its head in one river that took 
its rise in Eden, and each rolling outward water from 
the same well-spring of Paradise. 

So these four great streams of liturgic worship, one 
compassing the Patriarchate of Antioch, which extended 
from the Euphrates to the Hellespont ; one surrounding 
the churches of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Abyssinia; one 
going toward Italy and northern Africa ; and one water- 
ing the martyr-founded churches of Gaul; may each be 
traced backward to one head -spring, the Apostolic 
Church, when that church, still bedewed with its pen- 
tecostal baptism, " continued steadfastly in the apostles' 
doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and 
in prayers." With these ancient Liturgies, ours has 



FOR THE HOUSE OF PRAYER. 



119 



substantial unity. All that they borrowed from Script- 
ure we have in common with them ; and of that which 
is human and uninspired, the prayers, the hymns, the 
rites and ceremonies, we have retained and copied into 
our service whatever is most agreeable to Scripture and 
to apostolic usage. The prayers which the Church has 
offered for fourteen hundred years; the praises which 
she has sung for a whole millennium ; the rites which 
she has used for nearly forty generations of Christians; 
are the prayers and praises and rites which form the 
basis of our service, and which unite us in liturgical 
links with the purest and earliest worship of the Church 
of Christ. What a communion of saints does this ena- 
ble us to enjoy with the glorious company of the apostles, 
the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of 
martyrs, and the Holy Church throughout the world, as 
it enters into God's house with thanksgiving, and into 
his courts with prayer and praise ! 

Millions of hearts have breathed these prayers; mil- 
lions of tongues have sung these songs; and fitted as 
they are for all classes of men, all climes of earth, and 
all ages of the world, they bear upon them a stamp of 
universality, akin to that which God has impressed upon 
his holy word, and in using this Book of Prayer in the 
House of Prayer, the worshipper is liturgically allied to 
the Holy Catholic Church in each age of its existence. 

Brethren, we have much to be grateful to God for, 
that we have such a Biblical, holy, ancient, befitting 
and Christ-elevating Liturgy. There is observable in 
the Christian world outside of our communion, a yearn- 
ing after liturgical worship, and many efforts have been 
made to supply the defect. Service-books have been 
prepared by ministers of different denominations, and 



120 



THE BOOK OF PRAYER 



treatises have been written by Presbyterians, Lutherans, 
Independents, Socinians, and others, to prove that lit- 
urgic worship is consonant with the Bible, with the cus- 
tom of the early Church, with the proprieties of public 
worship, and with the needs of the popular heart. 

We state but a fact when we say, that there are lead- 
ing minds in every body of Christian worshippers in 
favor of a precomposed form or directory of public wor- 
ship. And many of them have left on record their re- 
grets at not having such a service, and their desire that 
such should be framed. Indeed many have been framed, 
but as none of them struck down their roots into the old 
Eastern Liturgies, that they might draw up thence the 
life-sap which is circulated in their apostolic forms, they 
all withered, and not one of them now remains in its 
original integrity. 

Calvin attempted it in 1553, in his Liturgy drawn up 
for the Reformed Church of Geneva, and failed. John 
Knox attempted it in 1554, in his "Book of Common 
Order " for the Church of Scotland, and failed. Richard 
Baxter attempted it in his Non-conformist Liturgy, and 
failed. John YV"esley attempted it in his " Sunday Ser- 
vice for the Methodists," and failed. But that Liturgy 
which martyr-bishops and other divines three hundred 
years ago, compiled out of the Holy Scriptures and prim- 
itive rituals, which was compacted and fashioned by the 
very men who gave to the world King James's Bible, has 
stood the battering-ram of Romanism and Puritanism; 
the sappings and minings of Socinians and Infidels; the 
treacherous blows of men who have eaten the bread of 
the Church, and then lifted up their heels against her; 
and has given to the English Church a steadfastness of 
faith, a purity of doctrine, a grandeur of worship, and a 



FOR THE HOUSE OF PRAYER. 



moral power possessed by no other church in the whole 
world. 

This Book of Prayer transmitted to us, and adapted 
to our American Church, improved in structure and ar- 
rangement, is the great liturgic heritage which we are 
to keep in full use in our House of Prayer, and trans- ^ 
mit unimpaired to our children's children as the noblest 
form of worship compiled by human minds, and the 
most fitting Book of Prayer for the House of Prayer. 

There are those who are almost afraid to eulogize the 
Prayer Book lest they should be thought to foster form- 
alism, or be regarded as formalists. With such I have 
no sympathy. Next to my Bible, I love my Prayer 
Book, and I hesitate not to proclaim its excellency and 
advocate its use. Nay more, I will say that the more 
the minds of the members of our Church are fashioned 
by its prayers and its praises ; the more they imbibe its 
devotional and eucharistic spirit; the more the Prayer 
Book lives its life, and breathes its breath in our souls, 
the holier shall we be, and the more glorious will the 
Church appear. 

Yet I would not overrate the Prayer Book. It does 
not overrate itself ; it is subordinate to the Bible, and 
there is its proper place. If an astronomer, after spend- 
ing many days in lecturing upon the nature and influ- 
ence of the sun, should devote one lecture to the moon, 
would it be regarded as disparaging the sun? Espe- 
cially if he should show that but for the sun, the moon 
would not shine or do her office ! 

Such is my position now. Every Lord's day do I 
preach about the sun, the glorious Sun of righteous- 
ness, the central orb of the moral universe, binding all 
churches to Him, lighting all churches with JEIis beams, 



122 



THE BOOK OF PRAYER. 



and by the sweet attractions of His love, causing them 
all to roll around Him, and make music as they roll. To- 
night, however, I come to speak of a distant satellite. I 
do not even propose to speak of the Church, which like 
the earth, moves in a stately orbit around this sun, but 
of the Prayer Book, that moon which moves around the 
Church. Like the moon, the Prayer Book is only a sat- 
ellite of the Church. Like the moon, it borrows all its 
light from the Sun of righteousness; like the moon, it 
always turns its bright face to the Church; like the 
moon, it creates the great tidal waves of prayer and 
praise ; like the moon, it shines only in the night of the 
Church's earthly being, and like the moon, it follows the 
Church, as the Church marches through the signs of her 
ecclesiastical zodiac, around the central orb of life and 
glory, even J esus Christ. 

Such is the position of the Prayer Book in the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church. It is not the greater light to 
rule the day, but the lesser light to shine upon our night 
of ignorance and infirmity ; and to guide our feet along 
that pathway of prayer and praise, which shineth more 
and more until the perfect day — the perfect day of 
heaven. 



X. 



LIVING STONES MADE READY FOR THE 
HEAVENLY TEMPLE. 

"And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made 
ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer, 
nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while it was in building." 
— I Kings vi. 7. 

The Temple of Solomon was the noblest structure 
ever built by human hands. 

In the Architect who devised it, in the materials em- 
ployed, in the labor bestowed, in the costliness of the 
work, and in the grandeur of its whole design, it sur- 
passed the proudest edifices of the world. Grand in the 
massiveness of its structure — magnificent in the arrange- 
ment of its courts, and porches, and gates, and holy, 
most holy places — splendid in the glittering radiance 
which its walls of dazzling whiteness flashed upon the 
beholder as the morning or evening sun was reflected 
from its " glistering stones, " it was pre-eminently hon- 
ored as the place where the Most High condescended to 
dwell between the cherubim in the Holy of Holies by 
a visible emblem, and where he communed with his 
anointed servant from off the mercy-seat of the ark of 
the covenant. 

Leaving, however, the many interesting points sug- 
gested by this stupendous work, let us bend our thoughts 
upon the remarkable fact spoken of by the sacred his- 



124 



LIVING STONES MADE READY 



torian: "And the house, when it was in building, was 
built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; 
so there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of 
iron, heard in the house while it was in building." 

It is difficult to understand how a work so vast and 
so complicated could be erected in such a silent man- 
ner; and this fact will appear the more remarkable if we 
consider the nature and dimensions of materials used. 
The heavy work was all of stone or marble, and some 
of the great and costly stones spoken of in the Book 
of Kings were blocks eighty feet long, ten high, and 
twelve wide, and many of its pillars were socketed in 
solid masonry. Its massive rafters were tenoned and 
mortised into corresponding beams ; yet these ponderous 
masses were hewn, squared, carved and fitted to their 
places, before they were brought to Mount Moriah, with 
such nicety and skill, that Josephus says that "the 
smallest interstices were not perceptible between the 
stones " ; and yet no hammer, axe, nor any tool of iron 
was needed to adjust them to their several places, and 
frame them together in grand, yet harmonious propor- 
tions. How all this could be accomplished in so unusual 
a manner can only be accounted for by supposing, that 
God presided over His own Temple, and gave the build- 
ers this unusual art and skill. 

This gorgeous Temple was destroyed by Nebuchad- 
nezzar nearly twenty-five hundred years ago. Another 
and another temple has risen on the same spot and met 
the same fate. The nation which worshipped in those 
sanctuaries has been scattered to the four winds of 
heaven ; yet the deep instruction furnished by this pas- 
sage remains: and let us, through God's assistance, at- 
tempt to search out and apply the lesson. 



FOR THE HEAVENLY TEMPLE. 



125 



In the New Testament the Church is termed " God's 
building" — "the temple of God" — "the temple of the 
Holy Ghost" — "the temple of the living God" — "an 
habitation of God in the Spirit." These terms denote, 
that as God by the bright symbol of His glory man- 
ifested His presence in the movable tabernacle erected 
by Moses, and the stately temple built by Solomon; so 
does He by His Spirit, dwell in the hearts of Christians 
as individuals, and in the Church collectively. 

In looking then at this Christian temple, let us ob- 
serve, first, the stones of which it is composed ; secondly, 
the preparation of them; and thirdly, their destination. 

St. Peter says of Christians, that "as lively stones 
they are built up a spiritual house." A stone is a shape- 
less mass of rock. It is inert — lifeless : could never 
split itself from its native quarry; could never fashion 
itself into classic shape and beauty ; and could never set 
itself up as a lintel or column in any edifice of man. 
And such by nature is the spiritual state of all men — 
having no power to move, hear, see, feel, believe, be- 
cause of the moral inertia which makes them as pas- 
sive, hard, insensible, as the stones of the earth. Hence, 
when God would express the hardened condition of a 
person or people, He speaks of such as having "hearts 
of stone." 

But believers having been hewn out from the quarry 
of humanity by the grace of God, are termed "living 
stones"; not inert masses of rock, not senseless blocks 
of marble, but full of life, feeling, action; and they are 
thus designated because Christ, as "the tried corner- 
stone," "the sure foundation," is called "a living stone," 
and diffuses His own life through all parts of the spirit- 
ual temple which rests on Him. So that evssy stone in 



126 



LIVING STONES MADE READY 



it, from the foundation to the top-stone, is made a pre- 
cious, a glistering, a living stone, through the indwell- 
ing life of Jesus, the Prince of life. So long then as the 
soul of the believer rests on Jesus Christ alone for sal- 
vation, and on nothing else, it has spiritual life. Build 
it upon any other foundation, and it is a senseless stone; 
only as laid by the Holy Ghost "upon the foundation 
of the prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ being the 
chief corner-stone," can it receive in itself the life of 
Christ, and become through the impartation of His own 
vitality a living stone. 

The way in which these living stones are prepared 
for the temple, furnishes a subject of interesting and 
profitable thought. The wood and stone used in Solo- 
mon's Temple were carefully prepared at a distance from 
the place where the edifice was to be built. The sacred 
house was planned out in minutest detail by David, 
under the direction of the Spirit of God. Each stone, 
column, lintel, architrave, capital, beam, rafter, had its 
special and appointed place ; but as yet the wood was 
waving its branches in the forests of Lebanon, and the 
stone was unquarried in the mountains of Judea. Under 
the direction of appointed overseers, the Hebrew work- 
man went up to the sides of Lebanon and cut down the 
designated tree ; and there, before carrying it to Jerusa- 
lem, he trimmed and fashioned it by much hewing and 
carving for its destined place. The Phoenician stone-cut- 
ter went to the mountain and split out masses of rock 
from the quarry ; and there, by many ponderous blows, 
he dressed it and shaped it for its appointed position. 
Many an axe and sharp-edged tool passed over that tree 
before it became a stately pillar; and many a hammer 
and instrument of iron was used on that once unsightly 



FOR THE HEAVENLY TEMPLE. 



127 



block ere as a polished stone it was fitted for the Tem- 
ple's wall. Most beautifully does all this illustrate the 
way of God in building up His spiritual and living 
temple. 

Though at conversion the child of God is a marked 
man, though he is justified freely by the grace that is 
in Christ J esus ; yet how much spiritual trimming and 
dressing, how much hewing and squaring does he need 
to fashion him aright for the position which the Divine 
Architect intends he shall occupy hereafter ! There are 
sharp angles of character to be rounded off; unsightly 
protuberances of conduct to be chipped away; many 
roughnesses of temper to be smoothed down; many 
flaws and cracks of mind and heart to be chiselled out ; 
and then, when the general form of the stone is pre- 
pared, how much severe friction is required to give it 
the right polish, and bring out all its beauties, so that 
its smooth surface may fling back the rays of the Sun of 
righteousness ! 

Our earth is the place where this work is to be done ; 
for, as there was no noise of any axe, or hammer, or tool 
of iron, heard on Mount Moriah while the Temple was 
building; so in the New Jerusalem above there will be 
heard no crushing strokes of conviction, no sharp hew- 
ings of an awakened conscience, no sound of prepara- 
tory discipline. Heaven is not the place to prepare men 
for glory ; but to receive them when prepared. Earth, 
then, is the preparing place for heaven, and the prep- 
aration is effected by the axe, the hammer, and the 
tools of iron of God's wise dispensations. All God's 
dealings with us have respect to our future existence ; 
and these are so wisely adapted to the peculiarities of 
each case that no two persons pass through the same 



128 



LIVING STONES MADE READY 



course, and no two result in the same development. 
We are not arbitrarily classed together like the Linnaean 
system of plants, under certain genera and species, and 
then each group made to experience the same indis- 
criminate treatment. Far from it; each individual in 
the whole training of his moral nature is as much under 
the eye and care of God as if there was no other being 
in the universe : and there is not a peculiarity of mind 
or heart or body, not a changing phase of life from the 
cradle to the coffin, that is not expressly met by infi- 
nite wisdom in the arrangement of His providence and 
grace. Nor does He set in motion a course of prepa- 
ration suited to your case, and then, leaving it like a 
piece of machinery to do its allotted work, go off to 
some other part of His wide domain to superintend some 
other of His vast designs. No. For, as the refiner of 
silver never removes his eye from the molten mass in 
the crucible of his furnace until he sees his own image 
reflected in the purged and shining metal; so God never 
leaves the individual soul which He has placed in the 
furnace fires of this world, until He either sees His own 
image reflected in the purified spirit, or proves it to be 
but sinful dross. 

The greater part of the preparation to which we are 
subjected as professing Christians, is of a disciplinary 
character, and hence is fitly represented by the axe, the 
hammer, and the tool of iron. Prosperity not only is 
the destruction of fools, but in the great majority of 
cases hardens the heart of the nominal Christian, so 
that Christ Himself was forced to say, "How hard- 
ly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom 
of heaven," and for many hundreds of years, God by 
the voice of Jeremiah has complained, "I spake unto 



FOR THE HEAVENLY TEMPLE. 129 

thee in thy prosperity ; but thou saidst I will not hear. 
This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou 
obeyedst not my voice." Afflictions come more imme- 
diately to the heart, and operate with a more searching 
and purifying influence upon the life. These show one 
his weakness and sinfulness ; lay open the moral anat- 
omy of his nature; subject to severest test his princi- 
ples of action, and cause him to retire into the cham- 
bers of his soul, and learn there in the light of the 
Bible and in the light of conscience, his relations and 
duties to God and man. Now the axe seems driven 
into the root of his happiness ; now he is broken as a 
block of granite under the blows of the hammer of 
Gods word ; and now the iron of a sore adversity has 
entered into his soul, and he feels himself stricken, 
smitten, and afflicted. In these dispensations, however 
severe, he is being fitted by the hand of God Himself 
for a place in glory. God knows for what position in 
that heavenly temple He has designed us, and He knows 
when we are prepared for that position ; nor will He per- 
mit us to receive a single blow or cut more than is nec- 
essary to accomplish His divine purpose concerning us. 
Let the Christian, then, who is passing through trials 
and afflictions fiery and discouraging, remember that 
God is thus hewing and squaring him here, that as a 
well-prepared and lively stone he may by and by be 
built up into the living temple "not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." The preparing process may 
be severe ; the strokes frequent and heavy ; the hewing 
into shape, painful to the flesh ; the polishing into beauty, 
rasping to the spirit; yet every blow aids to bring it 
into form ; every tool of iron, though it cuts deep, leaves 
behind some chiselled beauty ; and every grating file of 
9 * 



130 



LIVING STONES MADE READY 



sorrow that rasps the sensitive fibres of the heart, only- 
gives it a higher polish, and makes it reflect a brighter 
glory. And who will complain of such dealings, when 
such blissful ends are attained by it? Who will mur- 
mur at the roughness of a road that leads to such eter- 
nal joys? Who will repine at any chastenings, and not 
rather esteem them as light afflictions which are but for 
a moment, when his Heavenly Father assures him that 
they shall work out for him "a far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory"? And oh, let the afflicted saint 
remember also that as those portions of the earthly 
temple which were to be most conspicuous and beautiful, 
had more cutting and carving and polishing than others; 
so those whom God designs for eminence in glory, for 
pillars in His temple, are subjected to heavier blows, 
deeper chisellings, severer raspings in the process of 
bringing out in them higher beauties and a more excel- 
ling glory. 

And this leads us to consider, lastly, the end for 
which these living stones, thus prepared on earth, are 
designed. We have seen that the stones quarried out 
and elaborately hewn by the Sidonians, were taken after 
due preparation to Jerusalem and set up in the Temple. 
As the house erected for God by Solomon was the most 
magnificent of all earthly structures, and was designed 
to show forth the praise of God, and be His earthly 
abode ; so when He would speak of the glory of heaven, 
where He dwells in full and visible presence, where He 
is worshipped in pure and perfect devotion, where He 
receives His people into close and holy communion, and 
where He manifests the unveiled perfections of the God- 
head; He speaks of it under the figure of a temple— 
a house — a building: of a temple, because He is wor- 



FOR THE HEAVENLY TEMPLE. 



131 



♦ 

shipped there; of a house, because He entertains His 
children there, in its " many mansions"; of a building, 
because it has been slowly built up since the foundation 
of the world. 

The real end, then, for which God hath chosen us in 
Christ Jesus before the world began, and fitted us on 
earth by His providential dispensations, is, " that in the 
dispensation of the fulness of time, He might gather to- 
gether in one, all things in Christ, both which are in 
heaven and which are on earth, even in Him." And 
this recapitulation of all things in Christ, is to be ef- 
fected by building all things on Christ as the sure foun- 
dation which God Himself has *laid in Zion ; and Chris- 
tians, as living stones chosen of God and precious, are, 
in the language of St. Paul, built upon the foundation 
of the apostles, " In whom all the building fitly framed 
together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In 
whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of 
God through the Spirit." This structure the same apos- 
tle designates in another place as " a building of God, 
a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
And now if we will with the eye of St. John gaze into 
the opening heavens, we shall with him behold no tem- 
ple there. Why? Because, says this beloved disciple, 
"the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the tem- 
ple thereof." Ah yes! Christ, in whom all things are 
gathered together, on whom as a corner-stone all lively 
stones are built, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily, is the temple of heaven ! and because 
we are Christ's, and Christ is God, we also, by being, in 
the words of St. Paul, " partakers of the Divine nature," 
become a holy temple of the Lord. 

This spiritual temple God is now building up, and it 



132 



LIVING STONES MADE READY 



progresses just as fast as the living stones are prepared 
to take their places above. And this building process 
is going on every day, in our midst, under our own 
eyes. The prattling infant, the loving child, the youth 
of promise, the doting mother, the cherished wife, the 
fond husband, the revered parent, the loved sister, the 
manly brother, all have been taken from our midst, and 
while household after household have put on mourning 
and uttered piercing cries of anguish, as the beloved 
but stricken one has been taken away, angels hava 
shouted for joy that another " lively stone" has been set 
up in the heavens to abide forever in glory. And who 
of those who hope that .they are lively stones, who are 
now passing through the trials and afflictions of our 
needed preparation; who of us will next be taken to 
that heavenly temple ? Or if God keep you longer on 
earth, and cause you to suffer trials and afflictions of 
mind and body, and home and friends, and business and 
fortune, can you, will you, repine, when you know why 
He keeps you here, and what these tribulations are de- 
signed to accomplish in you ? Keep before your souls 
God's ultimate purpose, and it will make you always to 
rejoice in God's present dealings. Look frequently at 
the glorious end, and you will murmur less at the sor- 
rows of the way, and remember that the moment that 
you are fitted in the eye of the Great Architect to take 
your place as a living stone above, He will place you 
there, whether with the preliminary call of sickness, or 
the sudden summons, "Come up hither." And as the 
saints look back to the quarry whence they were hewn, 
and compare their rough and unshapen appearance then, 
with their present grace and beauty, will they not bless 
God, who did not leave them in the stony ledge of im- 



FOR THE HEAVENLY TEMPLE. 



133 



penitence, or lying as unseemly blocks at the quarry's 
mouth; but who caused to pass over them, the axe and 
the hammer, and the tool of iron of His afflictive dispen- 
sation, and thus made them lively stones fitted to abide 
in eternal beauty in the New Jerusalem above ? 



XL 



WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 

"0 my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night 
season, and am not silent." — Psalm xxii. 2. 

The question is often asked, Why are not my prayers 
answered? and why, if granted, are the answers so often 
apparently contrary to my requests? These are impor- 
tant queries, and to reply to them will be the object of 
this discourse. 

Since God has declared Himself to be a hearer of 
prayer, it was requisite that He should institute the way 
by which we could have communion with Him. The hu- 
man mind, unaided, could never have invented a method 
of approaching the Most High, or been able to indicate 
on what terms God would hear and answer prayer. He 
must tell us the way, and He must designate the terms 
in and through which He will be approached ; and it fol- 
lows that unless we know this way, or knowing it, un- 
less we follow His instructions, we can neither come to 
God aright nor be received with favor. 

The directions which God has given us on this subject 
are few and simple. We are to pray from our hearts, 
asking for those things which are agreeable to His will, 
— with faith, believing, — prompted in our supplications 
by the Holy Ghost, and offering them in and through 



WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 135 

the all -prevailing name of Jesus Christ. These plain 
terms must, in every respect, be complied with, or the 
prayer will be offered in vain. It would be well if 
every Christian would carefully understand what prayer 
is, and keep before him the several elements of which it 
is composed ; and then would he always possess a guide 
to acceptable devotion, as well as a test whereby he 
could try the nature of his petition ; whether it is pre- 
sented aright, or whether it be not offering to God the 
mere service of the lips, "while the heart is far from 
Him." 

To facilitate this, I shall state a few causes why our 
prayers so often fail of success. 

Foremost among these, perhaps, is a lack of faith. 

There can be no acceptable prayer where there is no 
faith ; for if we do not believe God's word, and confide 
in His promises, we not only dishonor Him, but engen- 
der within ourselves that distrust which abstracts from 
prayer all its life and strength. All Christians, how- 
ever, have a general kind of faith ; they have a belief 
in God's word, and a sort of trust in all His promises ; 
but when they descend to particular points, and are re- 
quired to exercise faith in all positions and relations — 
to believe every word of God, and confide in each of His 
promises, the smallest as well as the greatest — then is 
it that distrust and weakness of faith begin to manifest 
themselves. There are a multitude of prayers offered to 
God, with something like this feeling: "Well, perhaps 
God will hear and answer; perhaps not. At any rate, 
I may as well pray ; and if the answer comes, well : if 
not, I at least have done my duty." Now, such a feel- 
ing as this, though it be not positive infidelity, is so 
near to it as to be most offensive to God, and can only 



136 WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 



bring forth His severe displeasure. The faith that He 
demands of us is, that we should believe implicitly that 
He hears, and will answer, every prayer which is offered 
to Him aright. It is a great sin to present to God any 
petition other than that which He has directed, and in 
any other way than He has pointed out. But this being 
attended to, it is even a greater sin to offer it unaccom- 
panied by the faith that can assure itself that God will 
hear, and icill answer. The matter of prayer is one thing, 
the manner of prayer is another. If the manner of pre- 
senting our prayer is right, and the matter wrong, then, 
of course, will it miscarry. If the matter is right, and 
the manner wrong, the prayer is likewise fruitless of 
good. St. James says, "Let a man ask in faith, nothing 
wavering; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the 
sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that 
man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." 
We should never offer a prayer that we do not wish an- 
swered ; and, wishing it to be answered, we should im- 
plicitly believe that it will be heard and answered, if in 
accordance with the Divine will. Whenever you bow 
before the mercy-seat, you should ask yourself, Do I 
want this and this mercy ? has God promised to grant 
it? And if you feel your need and acknowledge His 
promise, then pray with a certainty and an assurance 
of faith that wavers not any more than the solid rock, 
because your promise rests upon Him "in whom is no 
variableness, neither shadow of turning." In this lack 
of faith — this semi-infidelity of the people of God — this 
distrusting of God's care, or goodness, or power — this 
unbelief in the full import of His promises — this unwill- 
ingness to confide unwaveringly in His will and wisdom, 
and to take Him at His word as a God of truth, may be 



WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 137 

found one of the great reasons why our prayers are not 
heard and answered. If one of our fellow-men pledges 
us his word, or gives us, with ample security, his prom- 
issory note, we receive them with implicit confidence; 
and all that God requires of us is to give to His word 
and His promises the same belief that we award to a 
mutable, fallible, and dying creature like ourselves. For 
how many prayers that now lie unanswered before the 
mercy-seat, would return, full freighted with blessings, 
if we only believed in the truth of God as we trust in 
the veracity of men. 

Another reason why our prayers are not answered 
is, that we evince a practical unbelief in God's ability 
to grant us our requests. I say, practical unbelief ; for, 
in theory, all Christians believe in the omniscience and 
omnipotence of Jehovah. Yet, in practice, in the details 
of life, how few regard these doctrines! We are too 
much accustomed to measure God's ability by our abil- 
ity ; and, if a thing appears to us improbable, or impos- 
sible, then do we immediately act as if these contin- 
gencies affected God as well as ourselves, and presented 
the same barriers to Him as they do to us. Probabilities 
and possibilities respect ourselves only, and must ever 
govern us in our future plans and expectations ; and hu- 
man sagacity is tested by its ability to forecast these 
plans, so as to swing clear of all contingencies, and 
educe these expectations, unclogged by any countervail- 
ing hindrance. But such ideas as these should never 
gain a place in our minds, when we come before God in 
prayer; for not only is it true, as Christ said, that " all 
things are possible to him that believeth," but it is also 
true, as the Bible elsewhere declares, "with God nothing 
is impossible." 



138 WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 



Whenever, then, we ask for any thing in accordance 
with God's will, never stop to calculate the chances of 
His hearing, or speculate upon the difficulties that inter- 
pose to His granting our requests. If it is a proper re- 
quest, pray, and act in the full assurance that He will 
hear and answer, notwithstanding every apparent diffi- 
culty in the way of granting it. Only pray, and believe 
that God is what He is, and all will be well ; but if you 
regard Him as a being less than infinite in His perfec- 
tions and attributes, the strength of your prayers will be 
graduated by your view of His character, and of course, 
will fall short of the Bible standard, and thus fail of 
being either heard or answered. 

Another great hindrance to the success of prayer arises 
from the indulgence of some one or more known sins. 
The Psalmist has distinctly declared, "If I regard in- 
iquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." To 
pray, and yet to commit wilful sin, or still to pursue a 
course of secret or open iniquity, is not only mocking 
God with lip service, but is also acting with hypocrisy, 
professing one thing, but doing another. A God of holi- 
ness can not, consistently with His own character, listen 
to the prayer of a deliberate sinner ; and accordingly He 
tells the wicked Israelites, through His prophet, " When 
ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from 
you, and when ye make many prayers, I will not hear ; " 
and in another passage, we have the distinct assertion, 
"God heareth not sinners," i. e., those who continue in 
known transgression. For not only is such a life repug- 
nant to the holiness of God, it also opposes every prin- 
ciple of piety in our own hearts; for where sin dwells, 
there can be found neither faith, nor humility, nor obe- 
dience, nor love to God, nor a well-founded hope, nor 



WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 139 



heavenly desires, nor a righteous life ; and if these exist 
not in the heart, vain are all the words of the lips. A 
praying spirit and a sinning heart can not dwell to- 
gether; and when the life does not correspond to our 
devotions, then can we in nowise expect answers of 
peace. Hence the necessity of carefully examining our- 
selves when we come before the Lord, that we may ap- 
proach Him with clean hands and pure hearts, knowing 
that the indulgence of any sin, however small and insig- 
nificant it may appear to us, will assuredly expel from 
our souls the spirit of grace and supplication, and cut 
off all communion with the Holy Ghost, the Prompter 
of prayer; with Jesus Christ, the Intercessor; and with 
God, the Hearer of prayer. 

Eemissness in the performance of our Christian duty 
is also another reason why our prayers are not an- 
swered. Prayer is not the only duty which God has 
laid upon us ; there are others equally obligatory, such 
as watchfulness, self-examination, reading of God's word, 
giving of alms, resisting temptation, fleeing from evil; 
and the performance of these is so interlocked with 
prayer, that prayer without them is as useless, for all 
purposes of growth in grace, as these are without prayer. 
We may, for example, beseech God to deliver us from 
evil, and to give us an increase of holiness ; yet if we en- 
tertain evil thoughts in our minds, and make no efforts 
to grow in grace, we can not receive an answer of peace. 
In the moral as in the physical world, God has estab- 
lished a connection between means and ends ; and these 
ends only become ours through the established means 
which lead to those ends. The means which God has 
ordained for our advancement in holiness are plainly 
declared to us in the Bible ; and when we ask for deeper 



140 WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 



piety, for greater love, for increase of faith, and joy, and 
peace, and holiness, the answer will come to us through 
the appointed channels of watchfulness, meditation, self- 
examination, the diligent performance of each duty, and 
the carefully weeding out from our hearts the tares and 
the brambles of sin, fit only for the burning. Prayer 
does not divest us of our free agency. Prayer does not 
beget for us a direct infusion into our hearts of the 
mercy desired ; and if, after praying for advancement in 
grace and knowledge and faith, we proceed to follow 
our own ways, and indulge in negligence, presumption, 
and worldliness of mind, — neither watching nor exam- 
ining our hearts; neither reading nor meditating on 
God's word; neither striving against and fleeing from 
temptations, — our prayers, however proper in themselves, 
or however earnestly offered, or however correctly pre- 
sented, in the name of Jesus, will not only be frustrated, 
but can not, in the nature of things, be answered, un- 
less we expect God to set aside all the appointed means 
through which He answers prayer. No ardency or fre- 
quency of prayer can excuse us from performing all the 
duties enjoined upon us as Christians; the neglect of 
these will breed neglect of prayer, just as surely as the 
neglect of prayer will beget remissness in the perform- 
ance of Christian duty. 

Whenever we pray for blessings concerning which 
God has established a certain instrumentality, it is not 
enough that we pray, but we must use the instrumen- 
tality also, or the prayer will return empty. Suppose 
all the Christians in the world were to unite in lift- 
ing up their hearts to God for the conversion of the 
world, and yet not make one effort for its restoration 
to God, would that be praying aright ? and would there 



WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 141 



be much reason to believe that such prayers would be 
answered ? 

This tendency in the minds of many to divorce prayer 
from all the instrumentalities which God has connected 
with its being answered, is one fruitful source of evil, 
and a cause why so many prayers are uttered in vain. 

To illustrate this: suppose that you are threatened 
with shipwreck — the storm rages fearfully — the waves 
break over the ship — the vessel is dashed upon the 
rocks, and is broken up — every hope of escape seems 
gone, and in the extremity of your distress, you cry unto 
God to save you from this threatened death ! But how 
do you expect He will save you ? — by a miracle ? — by 
the direct interference of his omnipotence ?• — by bearing 
you through the air, and landing you safely on the shore? 
Or, do you not rather look for an answer to your prayer 
by means of human agency, and by physical and natural 
instrumentality ? — by a life-boat — by a cable fastened to 
the rock — by the buoying up of some part of the wreck, 
until it is washed upon the beach. And suppose that, 
having prayed to God for succor, you yet refuse to use 
the instrumentality which, in answer to your prayer, He 
has furnished for your safety. You decline to get into 
the life-boat, or object to being drawn ashore by a rope, 
or will not commit yourself to some means provided for 
your escape: can you be saved? God answered your 
prayer ; not by giving you, instantaneously, the end 
desired ; but by giving you means adequate to secure that 
end; and if you refused the means, you could not expect 
the end. So with spiritual blessings. God answers us 
through the instrumentality of duties; and we find the 
end we desire, when we use the means He has enjoined. 

Another reason why our prayers are not answered is, 



142 WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 



because we do not persevere in prayer. We learn the 
necessity of perseverance in prayer from the various 
exhortations to it which we find in God's word; but 
especially from two parables related by our Saviour: 
"The Friend at Midnight," recorded in the eleventh 
chapter of St. Luke, and " The Unjust Judge," in the 
seventeenth chapter of the same gospel; and each of 
them illustrates important points connected with this 
subject. 

The parable of " The Friend at Midnight," was spoken 
immediately after teaching His disciples what is now 
called the "Lord's Prayer"; at the conclusion of which 
He said: "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be 
given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall 
be opened unto you." 

The three repetitions of the command are more than 
mere repetitions; since to seek is more than ask; to 
knock, more than seek; and thus, in this ascending 
scale of earnestness, illustrated as it is by the effect 
which, in the parable, is ascribed to human importu- 
nity, an exhortation is given not merely to prayer, but 
to increasing urgency in prayer; even until the sup- 
pliant carry away the blessing which he desires, and 
which God is only waiting for the due time to arrive to 
give him. 

By the parable of "The Unjust Judge," Christ de- 
signed to have men reason thus : if a human judge, an 
unjust judge, a reprobate judge, fearing neither God nor 
man, will relieve the cause of a widow, simply because 
she wearies him with her importunity, shall not God 
who knows our wants — a just God, who has command- 
ed us to pray — answer the very petitions He has en- 
joined ? And though He delay answering for awhile, 



WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 143 



is it not that He may make the answer more gracious 
— more liberal — more esteemed? If we then faint in 
prayer, or offer unto God our petitions in a fitful man- 
ner, having neither perseverance nor importunity, can 
we expect that He will answer? Does it not show that 
we do not really desire the blessing craved? for did we 
long for it as the friend at midnight did for loaves, or 
the widow for redress from the unjust judge, we should 
not so soon give over praying ; but should redouble our 
earnestness, knowing that " the kingdom of heaven suf- 
fereth violence, and that the violent take it by force." 

One other way in which we ask and receive not, be- 
cause we ask amiss, is by asking things which do not 
accord with God's purposes of discipline or mercy. We 
must not forget the great truth, that God uses this world 
as a school of discipline, to fit us for a holier state above ; 
and all His purposes towards us must be interpreted by 
this view of our earthly pilgrimage. In this state of 
discipline, trials, afflictions, disappointments, blastings, 
etc., are the necessary instruments whereby our souls 
are purged and fitted for heaven. Yet we often pray 
that God would relieve us from this trial; that He 
would exempt us from this threatened affliction; that 
He would drive from us this cloud of sorrow; but, in 
His infinite wisdom, He knows that to grant these re- 
quests would be productive of evil rather than good ; as 
it is " in the furnace of affliction " that God often chooses 
His saints, and "through much tribulation that they en- 
ter into the kingdom of heaven." 

Paul " besought the Lord thrice " that He would re- 
move from him " the thorn in the flesh, the messenger 
of Satan to buffet him"; but God only replied, "My 
grace is sufficient for thee." Or, again, looking at the 



144 WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 



world with the eye of sense, rather than of faith, we 
ask God to give us temporal blessings, such as seem, to 
our short-sighted view, consistent with our welfare and 
His glory. But He knows our need better than we do, 
and He sees that were He to grant our request, it would 
be the means of sending leanness into our souls. He 
knows that the existence of our piety depends on not 
answering our requests, and that our soul's welfare re- 
quires, perhaps, things the very opposite of those for 
which we pray. 

If God really loves us, He will answer us, not so much 
according to our requests, as according to His purposes 
of mercy ; and to accomplish these, will require Him, at 
times, to do the very things which we most earnestly 
desire Him not to do ; for His ways are not our ways, 
neither are His thoughts our thoughts. If we ask that 
we may be humble, God does not give us directly the 
grace of humility; but opens, perhaps, to our hearts a 
view of the deep depravity and vileness of our souls. 

If we seek for nearer access and communion with 
God, He takes away from us some earthly idol, that the 
affections may be transferred to Him. If we desire en- 
larged views of God's character, He does not at once, by 
some sublime work, enlarge the boundaries of our mind, 
or give new power to our intellect ; but He teaches us 
what we wish to learn by His providences, fearful and 
alarming, perhaps, in their manifestations, yet illustra- 
tive of His glory and attributes. If we desire weaned- 
ness from the world, He strikes from under us, perhaps, 
the earthly props in which we trust, and in which we 
place our hope. If we plead for growth in grace, He 
answers, perhaps, by causing us to pass through the 
brick-kilns of oppression, or the fires of affliction. And 



WHY SO MANY PRAYERS ARE UNANSWERED. 145 



when we pray, Lord, increase our faith ! how often does 
the answer come in the shape of some trial or bereave- 
ment or vicissitude, which, showing us the vanity of 
earth, causes us to look with increasing confidence to 
God, and to place a more enduring trust in the prom- 
ises of the Most High. 

Thus is it that while our prayers are answered, they 
are not always answered in the way we either expect or 
desire. It is our duty to pray, and we must leave it to 
God to answer us when and how He will. No prayer 
offered to Him in faith, and in accordance with His will, 
is lost; they are all treasured up before the Lamb, in 
those " golden vials" spoken of in the Apocalypse — their 
incense shall yet ascend in precious odors before the 
throne — their cry shall yet be answered, and all those 
who have offered petitions to the Intercessor, shall yet 
lift up their thankful hearts, and say with David, "Bless- 
ed be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my 
supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield, 
my heart trusted in Him and I am helped : therefore my 
heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise 
Him." 



XII. 



THE ATONEMENT. 

"A Lamb as it had been slain." — Rev. v. 6. 

We do not sufficiently regard Jesus Christ as the 
Lamb of God. We have indeed some general ideas of 
Him in this character, but they are too often vague and 
unsatisfactory, and leave but faint impressions on our 
minds. As, however, few aspects of the Saviour are 
more precious unto us than that which represents Him 
as a Lamb, and as few terms are more frequently ap- 
plied to Him than this — there being over thirty places 
where He is especially designated as a Lamb — so it be- 
comes us to study this phase of our Eedeemer s mani- 
festation, and, by long dwelling upon the precious truths 
which it involves, fill our hearts, as " followers of the 
Lamb," w^ith such an appreciation of His love and glory, 
that we shall be permitted to "sing the song of Moses 
and the Lamb," in that New Jerusalem of which this 
Lamb is both u the light" and u the temple." 

The Bible speaks of the Lamb slain — the Lamb re- 
deeming — the Lamb conquering — the Lamb on Mount 
Zion — the Lamb's wife — the song of the Lamb — the 
marriage supper of the Lamb — the Lamb's book of life 
— the followers of the Lamb, and the duty of all to " Be- 



THE ATONEMENT. 



147 



hold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of 
the world." 

I ask your attention at this time to the first of these 
divisions, "the Lamb slain"; as that sacrifice lies at the 
foundation of the Christian religion. 

A sacrifice implies the idea of an atonement — a repa- 
ration — a reconciliation. These again presuppose a law 
broken, a right denied, an injury done. The opening 
pages of Kevelation, therefore, which tell us of the fall 
of man, tell us also of the subsequent sacrifices offered 
unto God. In the fall, man had broken God's law, denied 
God's right to rule, and inflicted an injury upon his own 
soul, and the souls of all his posterity. By sacrifice, an 
atonement was made for sin ; reparation was given for 
a broken law ; and a reconciliation effected with a once 
offended God. Hence they stand over against each 
other — the bane and the antidote — the death incurred, 
and the life secured. The divine image lost by the sin 
of the first Adam — the divine image restored by the sac- 
rifice of "the second Adam, the Lord from heaven." 

For several thousand years, however, these divinely 
appointed sacrifices had no value in themselves; for "the 
blood of bulls and of goats," as St. Paul distinctly asserts, 
" could not take away sin." They were, it is true, 
offered from the days of Adam to the days of Christ. 
They were appointed by a ritual given by God Himself 
— they were offered up by priests of His own choosing 
— their blood flowed in the courts of the Temple built to 
His honor, and filled with the emblems of His glory; 
and through these, an atonement was made for sin, and 
a reconciliation was effected with God. But how ? — by 
the material blood that followed the sacrificial knife? 
Did the forfeited life of innocent animals, propitiate the 



148 



THE ATONEMENT. 



anger of an offended God ? and did His eye delight it- 
self in the expiring throes of the victims which bled at 
His altars ? Did the value of these offerings reside in 
the material part of the service ? No ! All the sacri- 
fices ever offered by God's command, derived their value 
only as they typified and illustrated the one great sacri- 
fice of Jesus Christ on Calvary. To this Cross of Christ, 
on which was slain " the Lamb of God," all sacrifices 
looked. In this, all found their antitype. By it, all had 
efficacy ; and only as the offerer had faith to look beyond 
the animal slain, and the blood shed, to the promised 
Messiah, who should appear u once in the end of the 
world, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," did he 
derive any spiritual or lasting benefit or pardon by his 
sacrifice. Hence, of the very first recorded sacrifice it 
is said, that " by faith Abel offered unto God a more ex- 
cellent sacrifice than Cain." Hence also of those patri- 
archs who, like Abraham, " longed to see Christ's day," 
and, by the forecast vision of faith, " did see it and re- 
joiced," the apostle says, " these all died in faith, not 
having received the promises, but having seen them 
afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced 
them." Nothing can be plainer than the fact, that the 
whole Levitical service, in all its parts and develop- 
ments, found its end and fulfilment in Jesus Christ. In 
Him, it can all be explained and made to appear as the 
wise provision of a God of mercy; without Him, it is a 
meaningless and bloody ritual, at once profitless to the 
soul, and disgraceful to the Bible. 

But it may be asked, could not God have devised 
some other way of reconciliation ? and does it not mani- 
fest unpleasant features of character, when we see the 
Most High commanding the death of innocent animals, 



THE ATONEMENT. 



149 



and staining His temple with the blood of spotless lambs? 
It is enough for us to know that God has not devised 
any other way; and as He is a God of infinite wisdom, 
so the very fact that He has provided this plan, is plain 
evidence that it is the best and only way of reconcili- 
ation. As to its exhibiting any thing repulsive in the 
nature of God, that He should thus command these sac- 
rifices, we shall find, on the contrary, that a true under- 
standing of this peculiarity of the divine economy, will 
invest Him with new majesty, and elevate and refine 
our views of His holiness, and purity, and truth. To 
illustrate this point, let us take our stand in the Garden 
of Eden, beside the guilty pair, before they hear "the 
voice of the Lord walking in the garden at the cool of 
the day." What was to be done for these guilty ones ? 
God's law had been disobeyed — God's love had been 
slighted, and the threatened curse had been incurred. 
As soon as this had taken place, the image of God, in 
which man was made; peace with God, which man had 
enjoyed; love to God, which man had cherished; and the 
eternal life, which God had promised on the condition 
of obedience, were all destroyed. It is also evident that 
God might justly have left man where he had voluntarily 
placed himself ; that He was under no obligations to help 
or save him ; and that He would still have been a just 
and holy God, had He made no overtures of grace and 
mercy. Had God left our first parents to themselves, 
and to the developments of the sin which they had com- 
mitted, they never could have devised a way of return 
to Him ; never could have reinstated themselves in the 
divine favor ; never could have atoned for a violated law ; 
never could have secured eternal life; but must have 
gone on growing in sin, deepening in iniquity, until they 



150 



THE ATONEMENT. 



took up their abode in everlasting woe. Just at this 
point, then, comes in, with its life-giving power, the plan 
of our redemption. Without lowering the demands of 
justice, without abrogating one jot or tittle of the holy- 
law, mercy placed in the hands of the guilty pair the 
promise, and the prophecy, " that the seed of the woman 
should bruise the serpent's head " ; in other words, that 
one should be born of woman, who should destroy "the 
old serpent, the devil," and restore us to the favor and 
the blessedness which, through this subtle tempter, had 
been lost in Eden. This was the starting point of hope, 
of promise, of prophecy; faint in its outlines, and general 
in its terms; but, as the time wore on, it became through 
new prophecies and developments, brighter and stronger, 
waxing in influence and power, until the coming of this 
Messiah became the dominant hope in the mind of the 
Israelite, and at the same time had grown to be also 
"the desire of all nations. " 

But Christ was not to come until "the fulness of 
time" had arrived — i. e., until that fit and proper time 
which God saw to be best for the advent of so great a 
blessing. As this, according to our computation of years, 
was put off nearly four thousand years from man's fall 
(though not put off to the mind of Him with whom M a 
thousand years are as one day," and with whom time 
past, time present, time future, is an eternal now), how 
was this hope and blessing to be made effectual to those 
who should live before the coming of Christ ? Was the 
prophecy given in Eden, that mere filament of truth, 
sufficient to sustain the hope and anticipations of a dying 
world ? No ; men are material beings, and need to have 
their faith stayed up by material signs and symbols ; and, 
therefore, God devised a way by which the blessings of 



THE ATONEMENT. 



151 



the Christian covenant might be made of immediate use, 
and through which the death of Jesus could avail to the 
salvation of the antediluvian and the Israelite, as well 
as to those who saw the Lord with the eyes of sense, or 
who now behold Him with the retrospective eye of faith. 
That plan was the institution of animal sacrifices. By 
this institution, innocent animals of a particular kind 
and character, were slain, and their blood offered to 
God as a propitiation for the sins of the offerer, or of the 
family, or of the tribe, or of the great congregation. By 
this offering, what is called an atonement was made, and 
the sins of the offerers were covered and pardoned. 

But how could the blood of animals do this ? and how 
is it that, " without the shedding of blood there could 
be no remission of sins ? " Plainly in this way. By sin, 
man's life was forfeited; every soul had brought upon 
itself eternal death; it had u been forfeited to God, and 
as a debt due to His justice, it should, in right, be ren- 
dered back again to Him who gave it." The enforce- 
ment of this claim, of course, involves the eternal death 
of transgressors ; but, in the institution of sacrifice God 
provides a way of escape from this doom, by appointing 
a substitute, viz., the soul or life of a beast for the soul 
or life of a transgressor; and as the seat of life is in the 
blood (the Hebrew word for life and blood being one and 
the same), so the blood of the beast, its life-blood, was to 
be shed, and offered upon the altar of God, in the room 
of the higher, but guilty, life of man, which had become 
due, and which by right should be offered up to divine 
justice. 

When this was done — when the blood of the slain 
victim was poured out, or sprinkled upon the altar, and 
thereby given up to God — the sinner's guilt was, as the 



152 



THE ATONEMENT. 



Hebrew word expresses it, "covered"; a screen, as it 
were, was thrown between the eye of God and his guilt, 
or between his own soul and the penalty due to his trans- 
gression. In other words, a life that had not been for- 
feited, was accepted by God in the room of a life which 
was forfeited ; and the soul, ceremonially cleansed by 
this vicarious offering, was yielded back to the offerer, 
as now again a life in peace and fellowship with God, 
receiving life for himself out of the death of the animal, 
and remission of sins through the substituted blood of 
the victim slain upon the altar. The necessity of offer- 
ing an innocent animal arose from the fact that if the 
animal had been guilty, its own life would have been for- 
feited for itself, and could not be used then as a substi- 
tute for man ; but not being guilty, and not being for- 
feited for itself, it could be vicariously used, and offered 
in lieu of a life that was guilty, and thereby forfeited to 
God. 

This, in very brief language, is what may be termed 
the philosophy of sacrifices. This vindicates their ori- 
gin from any cruelty, establishes their worth as a plan 
of mercy, and met the wants of the human race until the 
great sacrifice, "the Lamb of God," was offered on the 
hill of Calvary. 

A careful survey of the Levitical law in connection 
with the Epistle to the Hebrews, shows us, that all the 
sacrifices there enjoined, the rites there directed, and the 
arrangements of the tabernacle and temple service there 
set forth; derived their value and efficacy from their re- 
lation to Jesus Christ alone. The effect of His death 
was reflected backward, to the Patriarchal and Levitical 
dispensations, by which salvation was granted to those 
who came to Him, not indeed as now, by a direct ap- 



THE ATONEMENT. 



153 



proach, but through the victim, on the altar, which then 
typified Him, and showed forth His death and its blessed 
results until He came. 

Among the animals sacrificed by the Jews, the Lamb 
held a pre-eminent place ; and therefore, as well on ac- 
count of His gentleness and spotlessness of character, as 
from the offering up of Himself as the substitute for 
guilty man, Jesus Christ is well termed "the Lamb of 
God " ; and because the efficacy of Christ's death flows 
backward to our first parents, in the infancy of the 
world; and because with Him who inhabiteth eternity 
there are no distinctions of time, He is said to be "a 
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world " ; the re- 
troactive virtue of His death dating four thousand years 
before His blood actually flowed upon the accursed tree. 
It needs but a very few words to show how Christ, in 
His life and death, met all that was typified by the sac- 
rificial lamb, and thus became the full and glorious 
antitype of every offering under the old covenant of 
works. 

As there were so many different kinds of sacrifices 
among the Jews, we have not time to trace out the mi- 
nute analogies and relations of Christ to the various sin- 
offerings, and trespass-offerings, and burnt-offerings, and 
peace-offerings, and meat-offerings there recorded. We 
must, therefore, seek certain points which, in a great de- 
gree, are common to all, and show how Christ, as the 
Lamb of God, covered these points so as to embody, in 
His own sacrifice, every thing that was peculiar to the 
offerings of olden times. 

The first point to be noticed is, that the victim offered 
in sacrifice was not guilty. The animal had no sins of 
its own to answer for; it stood, indeed, in the sinner's 



154c 



THE ATONEMENT. 



place ; but this vicarious substitution gave it only a cer- 
emonial and not actual and internal guilt. 

So Christ was guiltless. The apostate who betrayed 
Him, the king who condemned Him, the centurion who 
crucified Him, testified to His innocence. He stood in- 
deed in the sinners place, and, thus standing, was foren- 
sically guilty — but only thus, for sin never stained His 
soul, being, in the words of the apostle, u Holy, harm- 
less, undefiled, separate from sinners." 

Another point common to all sacrifices, was, that they 
should be the best of their kind. The lame, the diseased, 
the old, the imperfect, were rejected; and the best of the 
flock, and the herd, and of the fruits of the ground, were 
to be offered. A failure in this particular vitiated the 
w r hole sacrifice. Jesus Christ is u the first born, the 
highest of all the sons of the earth; " "He is the chiefest 
among ten thousand;" " He is altogether lovely;" "He 
is the brightness of the Fathers glory," for "in Him 
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." 

Another point incident to these sacrifices, especially 
to all burnt-offerings and sin-offerings, was the laying 
of the hand of the offerer upon the head of the victim, 
before its blood was shed in death. By this symbolical 
act, the offerer, who was guilty, conveyed to an animal, 
not guilty, the sins for which the offerer had incurred 
the penalty of death ; but transferring them from him- 
self, by this laying on of hands, to the innocent animal, 
that animal, thus bearing the sins of the offerer, was 
treated as if guilty, and its blood, its life, paid the pen- 
alty required by an offended law. This implied a sense 
of guilt on the part of the offerer; this implied that he 
acknowledged that for this guilt he deserved to die; 
but it implied also, that God provided a substitute, 



THE ATONEMENT. 



155 



faintly represented by the victim at the altar, which 
substitute should, in the fulness of time, offer Himself, 
not for the sins of one person, or one nation, but " of 
the whole world." 

Thus Jesus Christ had "laid on Him the iniquities of 
us all." We do not indeed approach Him with our bod- 
ily hands, and lay them on His head, confessing our sins 
the while; but it is distinctly declared that "He bare 
our sins in His own body on the tree " ; and faith goes 
to Him with its hands laden with transgressions, and 
lays all its guilt upon His head, for He is an infinite sac- 
rifice, and is able to bear away the sins of the whole 
world. 

Another common point was, that the blood of the 
victim was shed. In Leviticus, God says, "For the life, 
or soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to 
you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls ; 
for it is the blood that maketh atonement for or through 
the soul." Hence, St. Paul also declares, "Without shed- 
ding of blood there is no remission." That the blood of 
Christ was shed, all earth and heaven testified, nor has 
it ever been denied. 

The last point to be noticed was, that this blood was 
to be sprinkled, on ordinary occasions, upon the altar, 
round about; but on the great day of atonement also 
upon the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies, carried in 
there by the high priest, who, on this day, himself shed 
the blood of the victim. The sprinkling of the blood 
upon the altar and the mercy-seat, told, in symbolical 
language, that God had accepted the gift and substitute, 
and on account thereof, the offerer received pardon and 
peace. Hence, it was not enough that Christ's blood 
was shed; there must be something to indicate that *the 



156 



THE ATONEMENT. 



blood of Him who bore our sins, and who "was made 
sin for us," had been accepted of God; therefore Christ is 
said, as our great High Priest, to have "passed into the 
heavens," bearing in His hand, not "the blood of bulls 
and of goats," "but His own blood;" and sprinkling it 
there, "before the mercy-seat on high." Jesus Christ, 
then, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, 
meets every type and shadow of the olden dispensations, 
and gives to them that perfection and efficacy which they 
had not in themselves. 

It was morally and physically necessary, then, that 
Christ, as the Lamb of God, should be slain, in order to 
secure our salvation. There was, so far as we know, no 
other way whereby a dishonored law could be magni- 
fied, its penalty removed, and the loss of eternal life by 
disobedience, be repaired. He alone could fill up the 
mighty breach which sin had made. Sinless, He alone 
could offer His life-blood, that was not forfeited; for the 
life, the blood, of man, that was forfeited. The " seed 
of the woman," He only could fulfil the prophecy and 
"bruise the serpent's head." The Divine "Messiah," He 
only could bear the iniquities of the world on His own 
shoulders. The Lord of life, He only could crush the 
power of death, and give man the resurrection of life; 
and heaven could never have been inhabited by any of 
the human race, had not Christ entered in there with 
His own blood, and as our great High Priest, made in- 
tercession for us, and prepared those mansions in the 
Father's house which shall be ours in glory. How He 
was slain, I need not stop to tell. The story of His 
death is familiar to, us all — alas ! so familiar that it fails 
to arrest our mind and engross our heart. Would that 
we could be made to feel the deep solemnity of that cru- 



THE ATONEMENT. 



157 



cifixion scene, and to comprehend the magnitude of the 
issues which hung upon that dropping blood ! I know 
that the physical circumstances of that event were thrill- 
ing in the extreme. The mere crucifixion of any slave 
has in it that which would excite compassion ; but this 
event has no parallel in the history of the world ; never 
was a death like the death of Jesus. Great men, and 
kings, and heroes, have died, and nature uttered no 
moan of sympathy ; but she shut her burning eye and 
trembled like a thing of life and love, when Jesus hung 
upon the cross; and even now wears the scars of the 
wounds which then rent her throbbing breast. But 
these things, stupendous and unnatural as they were, 
are as nothing to the moral interests which cluster 
round the slaying of the Lamb. By that event the 
government of God was magnified and sustained to its 
utmost bounds. A way was made by which the alien, 
man, could be reconciled to God, and the self-outcast 
rebel become a child of glory. The power and dominion 
of sin was broken ! Death was overcome ! Heaven was 
opened, and the once lost soul, found, washed, robed in 
Christ's righteousness, and admitted to glory, is made a 
king and a priest unto God forever ! Such is the won- 
der-working power of u the Lamb as it had been slain." 

As we look at this Lamb of God, let us mark the dire- 
ful malignity of sin. It was sin that drew Christ from 
His throne ; that humbled Him to the state and condition 
of humanity; that made Him all His days " a man of sor- 
rows" ; that hunted His life from infancy, and that finally 
nailed Him to the accursed tree." Had not man sinned, 
Jesus would never have become incarnate. Hence, every 
pang and woe which He endured in body and soul, from 
His miraculous birth to His ignominious death, was in- 1 



158 



THE ATONEMENT. 



flicted by sin. 0, if you love sin ; if you are resolved 
not to forsake it; if you do not hate it as the enemy of 
God, and Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and your own 
soul, you are hugging that to your heart which drove 
the nails into the hands, and which thrust the spear into 
the side of the Lamb of God. 

But we see in the Lamb slain, not only the work of 
sin, but the work of love. As we gaze for the last time 
upon the face of some dear friend, as he lies cold and 
silent in the coffin, how memory calls up the many 
scenes and evidences of love which that dead friend has 
manifested towards us ! Anger if we had any — envy, 
malice, are banished; and as we look upon the face of 
the dead, we think only of the love, the deep affection 
that once filled that now silent heart ; and so when we 
look upon this Lamb slain, gazing, by faith, upon the 
features of the Crucified, let us call up His love, think 
over all He has done for our soul, recall His words of 
affection, remember how often we have grieved Him, 
but He has never grieved us ; how often we have turned 
away from Him, but He never from us; how often we 
have forgotten Him, but He has never forgotten us. Be- 
view the whole history of this Lamb of God, and as we 
feel that He crowned all this love by dying in our stead, 
that we might have life, let us ask ourselves what return 
of love ought we to make to Him who loved us before 
the foundation of the world; loved us even unto death, 
and now loves us with a love as large as His infinite 
heart, and as unchangeable as His divine nature ? The 
only return which we can make is to give ourselves as 
living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our 
reasonable service. 



XIII. 



JESUS OUR REFUGE AND REST. 

" And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind; and a covert 
from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place; as the shadow of a 
great rock in a weary land." — Isaiah xxxii. 2. 

In this language, peculiar to oriental countries, the 
prophet sets forth the refuge, refreshment, and rest that 
the believer shall find in the Messiah. 

Let us analyze, in a few brief words, the language of 
the text, and then apply it to Jesus Christ. 

The "wind" spoken of is either the hot desert-breath 
which sweeps up from the arid sandy wastes on the 
east and south of Palestine, blasting and wilting health, 
strength, life, and producing intense, and often fatal 
suffering; or, the desolating "east wind," technically 
so called, which causes great destruction of dwellings, 
fruits, and crops throughout the western coast of Judea. 
"A hiding place" from such a wind would be a pecu- 
liar blessing, where one could abide until its fury was 
spent, and the gentle south wind again blew. 

The "tempest," unlike the dry wind-storm of the des- 
ert, was a fierce gale, accompanied with rain, thunder, 
lightning, and hail; and there is reference, doubtless, 
to the Euroclydon, now called in the Mediterranean a 
Levanter, the fury of which is well known. By it St. 



160 



JESUS OUR REFUGE AND REST. 



Paul was shipwrecked; and its violence and destructive- 
ness on land and sea are matters of common notoriety. 
Those who have been tossed about days and nights in 
such tempests, when neither sun nor star appeared, or 
who have been exposed to its peltings without the shel- 
ter of a cave or a caravansera, well know the blessing 
of "a covert'' from such a storm. 

The "rivers of water in a dry place," indicate the 
abundant refreshment that there would be in those hot 
and parched lands, where rivers were few, small, and 
uncertain, where springs were scarce, where wells were 
found only at long intervals and of scanty depth. Over 
those Arabian deserts the traveller, borne upon the 
camel's back, journeys day after day without seeing a 
stream, a spring, or a well. To him, the most delight- 
ful idea is that of cool and flowing water; water so 
plenteous as to be styled rivers, where he could not 
merely slake his thirst, but bathe his almost sun-baked 
body, and gain new life and strength from its reviving 
waves. 

Still borrowing his images from the lands in and 
around the Arabian deserts, the prophet introduces one 
more figure — "the shadow of a great rock in a weary 
land." Trees, in those sandy wastes, are rare; but there 
are frequently found immense masses of rocks, the spurs 
of mountains, or outcropping ledges of stone, which 
afford protection from the sun, and as there is generally 
some herbage around the rock, comfort and coolness 
to man and beast. The tired traveller has passed over 
"a weary land"; nothing has met his eye but burning 
sand, and stunted saline shrubs. At length he sees the 
dark rock afar off. He is thirsty and hungry, wilted with 
heat, and sore with fatigue; and he longs to descend 



JESUS OUR REFUGE AND REST. 



161 



from his "ship of the desert," and, in the cool "shadow" 
and refreshing moisture of this "great rock," recruit his 
exhausted strength. 

There is then great force in the language of the proph- 
et, far greater than we can conceive unless we have 
travelled in those Eastern lands. And yet, forcible and 
pertinent as these illustrations are, they afford but mean 
and slender ideas of the refuge, refreshment, and rest 
which the soul finds in Jesus Christ. 

Let us consider, then, these several necessities of the 
soul, and the full provision made to meet its wants. 

First: We want a refuge from the stormy-wind of God's 
wrath. The Bible declares that "the wrath of God is 
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of men," 
and it necessarily must be so, so long as God is holy 
and man sinful. Consequently all impenitent persons 
are exposed to this wrath, for they are in the hands of 
One of whom it it is said, "He is angry with the wicked 
every day." A moment's calm reflection, should con- 
vince such of the extreme peril of their position. They 
have not a moment's security against divine punish- 
ment, and yet, to see them in their pride and reck- 
lessness, in their hardened indifference and daily trans- 
gression, one would suppose that they had taken out 
life-leases for a thousand years; when the real fact is, 
that they "stand on slippery places," and, unless plucked 
thence by the Spirit of God, their "feet shall slide in 
due time." 

The traveller by land or sea who casts his eye around 
the horizon and sees the dense cloud gathering black- 
ness, and the tempest rolling itself up for the onset, 
makes all preparation to meet the coming storm, or 
seeks a refuge from its fury; and he who attempted to 
10 



162 



JESUS OUR REFUGE AND REST. 



brave the storm when a covert was at hand, would ex- 
pect nothing better than to perish in the blast. But the 
impenitent are warned of this coming wrath day by- 
day; they are pointed to the words of the Bible, which 
declare it; their consciences tell them that it is even so; 
their reason pronounces God's course a just and merciful 
one ; they assent to the importance of having an interest 
in the Lord Jesus ; yet, hoping to brave the storm a little 
longer, presuming upon God's mercy still further, they 
go on in sin, in rejecting Christ, in struggling against 
the Spirit, in rebelling against God, until, in the lan- 
guage of Job, " Terrors take hold of him as waters, a 
tempest stealeth him away in the night, and he depart- 
eth, and as a storm hurleth him out of his place." 

But what a blessed truth is it, that there is provided a 
refuge in Christ Jesus! That which so threatens us 
with vengeance is the holy law of God pronouncing its 
just curse on every act of disobedience. It is the trans- 
gression of this law which is sin. It is the justice of 
God which requires that this sin should be punished ; for 
the decree of this holy lawgiver is, " Cursed is every one 
that continueth not in all things written in the book of 
the law to do them." From this curse, and consequent 
punishment, we can be freed only in two ways : by per- 
fect personal obedience, or by the obedience and suf- 
fering of a recognized substitute and surety. To roll 
off the curse from our heads by personal obedience to all 
the precepts of the law is impossible, because we inherit 
such sinful natures that "we go astray as soon as we 
are born," and consequently what the apostle says is 
necessarily true: " By the deeds of the law shall no 
flesh living be justified." 

But when, by the fall of our first parents, this way of 



JESUS OUR REFUGE AND REST. 



163 



personal obedience was forever closed against lis, and 
we were exposed, unsheltered, to the full penalty of the 
violated law and its attendant curse; Christ opened a 
way of escape, by condescending to take the sinner's 
place, bear the sinner's curse, and thus, by His own 
obedience and death, create a new title to life ; the cove- 
nant being devised in the counsels of the Godhead, 
being written in the blood of the cross, being sealed by 
the Holy Ghost. 

Christ, then, having " satisfied the law and made it 
honorable," having " borne our sins in His own body on 
the tree," " hath redeemed us from the curse of the law," 
hath effected a reconciliation with God, hath made it 
possible for Him "to be just, and yet the justifier of 
him that believeth in Jesus." And the simple condi- 
tion upon which we are put in full and eternal pos- 
session of all the blessings of this scheme of redemp- 
tion is "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved." To believe in Him in such wise as to 
commit to Him the undivided interest of our souls, to 
look to Him alone for salvation, to cast away every other 
help and refuge, and to come to Christ in the simplicity 
of a faith that takes Him at His word, exclaiming with 
one of old, "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief." 
When the sinner has done this, he has, in the emphatic 
words of the Bible, "fled for refuge to lay hold on the 
hope set before him in the gospel"; he has "put on 
Christ"; he has "hid his life with Christ in God"; he 
has "made the Lord his stronghold, and tower of de- 
fence"; he has found "a covert from the storm," for 
there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ 
Jesus. The law's dread curse can not reach him whose 
life "is hid with Christ in God." Justice can not arrest 



164 



JESUS OUR REFUGE AND REST. 



him who has gained the refuge of God's own providing. 
He boldly pleads what Christ has done. He boldly de- 
clares Christ to be his surety, and the destroying angel 
can not touch a hair of the head of those, upon the lintel 
and door-posts of whose heart is seen the blood of the 
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Thus it 
is that Christ became a full " covert from the storm " of 
divine justice, and a full "refuge from the wind" of 
God's consuming breath; the tempest which was due to 
us, was poured in its fury on Him, and we are spared its 
blast, because our surety has borne its brunt, and now 
offers to all who will believe in Him the sheltering refuge 
of His atoning grace. 

Secondly: We want that which will slake the thirst- 
ing of the immortal soul, "rivers of water in a diy 
place." The soul is of celestial origin, it will never die, 
and it is ever panting after that which is adapted to 
its spiritual need, and which will satisfy its aspirations. 
It is the possession of this immortal soul that makes 
man a being so "fearfully and wonderfully made"; and 
though the great majority of men seem to lose sight of 
their souls, and are perfectly reckless as to what becomes 
of them ; there is still at times a startling assertion of 
their rights, and an importunate putting forth of their 
needs, which shows that, though debased, they are not 
destroyed; though chained down to earth by the fetters 
of flesh and blood, they yet struggle for freedom and for 
relief. 

The world, however, can offer nothing but "dry 
places" to the soul. Sin has blasted its pastures, and 
dried up its well-springs, so that, in a spiritual sense, we 
live "in a parched and barren land." The world can 
never satisfy the desires of the soul; these desires are 



JESUS OUR REFUGE AND REST. 



165 



unbounded by time, unlimited by space; they stretch 
away into the future, they rise above the seen and the 
temporal. The soul has insatiate longings. There is in 
it, when not completely palsied by sin, and choked in 
all its utterances, a thirsting after more light, more hap- 
piness, more knowledge ; and such light, and happiness, 
and knowledge as earth can never give, because they 
do not pertain to earthly things. Who can recount the 
unsatisfied yearnings of his soul? You feel in your 
own consciousness the intense thirst of the spirit for 
something that you have not; and as aspiration after 
aspiration lures you on with the promise of satisfying 
waters, how does your heart sink within you as you 
find, after weary efforts to reach these rivers of pleasure, 
that it is only the mirage of the desert, the tantalizing 
mockery of a thirst made more painful by the very effort 
to reach the delusive stream ! And when the soul, under 
the convicting influences of the Holy Ghost, is made to 
feel, in a very peculiar sense, the thirstings after the 
new birth, feeling, as it has never before felt, the worth- 
iessness and unsatisfyingness of all that earth can offer, 
how does it strain after something that will slake its 
thirst and satisfy its cravings ; but nothing earthly con- 
tains it, and nothing earthly can impart the boon. 

To the soul thus situated, Christ offers Himself as 
"rivers of water in a dry place." He presents Himself 
as the one who alone can satisfy its wants and meet its 
aspirations. He stands beside every earth-hewn cistern, 
and laying His hand upon its curb, says of it, as He said 
to the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well, " Whosoever 
drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever 
drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never 
thirst." He sends out His prophets and apostles witk 



166 



JESUS OUR REFUGE AND REST. 



the cry, " Ho ! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
waters." His own language is, " If any man thirst, let 
him come unto me and drink." While the Church, the 
bride of Christ, catching up the tones of her beloved, and 
joined by the stirring voice of the Spirit, exclaims, 
"Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And" 
whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." 

There is no want of the soul that is not met and 
satisfied in Jesus Christ. He fills it with His own ful- 
ness, restores it to more than pristine joy, reunites its 
lost affections to God, calls out its highest aspirations, 
leads it on from one stage of glory to another, from 
one peak of knowledge to another, forever widening 
its vision, forever expanding its powers, forever making 
it to quaff of the waters of that " river of life, clear as 
crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
Lamb." With what great propriety may the prophet 
term Christ " rivers of water " ! Not a fountain, bub- 
bling up to-day and exhausted to-morrow; not a moun- 
tain-stream, swollen with winter's snows and dry in 
summers heats; not a single river even, that in time of 
drought might perchance shrink within its bed ; but to 
express the exhaustless fulness and overflowing abund- 
ance, he is styled "rivers of water." The flocking crowd 
of Christians may here drink and drink again. The na- 
tions of the earth may quaff its pure water, but can not 
drain it dry. There is in Christ sufficiency for every 
soul; all its holy longings, heavenly aspirations, and 
thirstings after righteousness, are met, and more than 
satisfied. When Christ is once apprehended as the true 
fountain of pleasure, then do we wonder that we could 
ever be satisfied with " the broken cisterns " of earthly 
comfort, " that can hold no water." 



JESUS OUR REFUGE AND REST. 



167 



Lastly: The soul wants spiritual rest: "the shadow 
of a great rock" in this "weary land." It has tried many 
plans of worldly greatness, and found them vain ; trav- 
ersed many ways of promised pleasure, and found them 
painful; sought out many inventions to stay it up in the 
day of its adversity, and found them "miserable comfort- 
ers all." It is, in the words of the prophet, "wearied 
in the greatness of its way." It is the peculiar office of 
the Holy Spirit to cause men to perceive the weariness 
and burdensomeness of sin. For so accustomed are we 
to sin, so infatuated with it, so blinded by nature to its 
evils, and its sorrows, that unless made to see it with a 
spiritual vision imparted by the Holy Ghost, we should 
never feel our real wretchedness and our intolerable bur- 
den. But when we do begin to feel and acknowledge 
this, then do we eagerly seek for relief and rest. To 
all such, Christ is revealed as " the shadow of a great 
rock in a weary land." He gives rest to the soul, by 
pardoning the sins which so weigh it down ; by remov- 
ing the curse which we so justly deserve ; and by impart- 
ing new life to the fainting spirit ; and when our sins are 
forgiven and the penalty of death removed, and the spirit 
of Christ infused into us, then, of course, there will be 
such a sense of relief and comfort as the traveller expe- 
riences who comes, after long hours of travel over a burn- 
ing sandy waste, to " the shadow of a great rock," and 
in its refreshing coolness finds the desired rest. 

Such is the gracious aspect in which Christ manifests 
Himself to His believing people. A refuge from the wind 
of adversity, a covert from the storm of divine anger, a 
source of unfailing refreshment to the hungry and thirst- 
ing pilgrim, and a secure and blessed rest to the sin- 
weary and guilt-laden soul. 



168 



JESUS OUR REFUGE AND REST. 



Sadly, then, are they deceiving themselves who refuse 
the offered grace of Jesus Christ. And why do they 
refuse ? Because they dare not rise above the fear of 
man, and in face of the taunts and jeers of so-called 
friends, go to Jesus. Because they are so pleased with 
their own garments of self-righteousness that they will 
not put on the proffered robe of Christ's righteousness ; 
or because the pride of their heart is so great that they 
will not humble themselves upon their knees and confess 
that they are great sinners in the sight of God, and are 
willing to receive salvation as the free gift of sovereign 
grace, " without money and without price." 

And will you for these reasons reject the Saviour? 
lose heaven? ruin yourself ? 

Look at them! will they bear examination? Hold 
them up in the light of eternity and with the fearful 
realities of the future unfolded before you ; how do they 
look there ? 

Utter them at the bar of God, and tell Him who u sit- 
teth on the great white throne," surrounded by angels, 
and with the book of judgment open before Him ; tell 
Him, and tell it out so loud that all the universe can 
hear, "I rejected Thee, Christ, as my 'refuge,' I re- 
fused Thee as a 'covert,' I turned away from Thee 'as 
rivers of water,' I sought Thee not as the 1 shadow of a 
great rock in that weary land,' because I feared what 
man should do unto me ; because I could not brook the 
ridicule of my fellows; because I was so engrossed in 
buying and selling and getting gain; because I was 
so delighted with my own morality; because I was too 
proud to bend the knee to Thee, Christ." How will 
such excuses sound at the judgment-seat of Christ ? 

Yet at that judgment -seat you must stand; before 



JESUS OUR REFUGE AND REST. 



169 



that rejected Saviour you must bow ; and as you can not 
stand acquitted there, except through faith in Him ; as 
you can not meet Him in peace, except through the 
salvation of His own providing, — so let me urge you, 
pilgrim to eternity, traveller through this weary and 
stormy land, to seek this only " hiding-place from the 
wind"; to flee to this only "covert from the storm" of 
wrath; to drink at these only "rivers of water" in the 
dry places of earth, and to sit down beneath this only 
"shadow of a great rock" in this weary land of earth, 
yielding with a glad mind and heart to the invitation 
of Jesus, "Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." 



XIV. 



WAITING AND WATCHING. 

" Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye your- 
selves like unto men that wait for their lord." — Luke xii. 35, 36. 

The religion of Jesus Christ is made up of two parts, — 
faith and works. Faith is the root of works; works the 
fruit of faith. A belief, however true and pure, if it be 
accepted only by the intellect, and be not carried out 
into practice, translating into active duties the faith 
held by the mind, is a barren faith, that will not be 
accepted by God, and will not secure salvation. On 
the other hand, works, however good, which spring 
not out of faith in the Lord Jesus, but which are done 
merely from human and worldly motives, are of no avail 
before God, because " whatsoever is not of faith is sin." 
Thrice has St. James told us, u Faith without works is 
dead"; and as distinctly has St. Paul declared, u By the 
deed of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight." 
Both apostles are right. Works without faith have no 
living root. Faith without works has no testifying and 
authenticating fruit. They are the two extremes of the 
one tree, viz., the root and the fruit; they are the two 
halves of the one whole — together they make up the 
complete Christian. 

In the text, this completeness is brought out and il 



WAITING AND WATCHING. 



171 



lustrated in a forcible manner, in the three aspects in 
which our Lord presents the Christian, viz., a servant, a 
light-bearer, and a watchman. 

In the first direction which our Lord gives, " Let your 
loins be girded about," we have before us the picture of 
a servant girded for duty. 

The flowing robes of the Orientals required that in all 
active exercises they should be gathered up and girt 
about by a girdle around the loins; thus their limbs 
would be free and unfettered by their full and cumbrous 
robes. I need not tell you what the position and duties 
of a servant are ; how it is expected of him that he 
should know his place, and humbly and faithfully dis- 
charge the duties of his station. He should, if possible, 
identify himself with his master's interest, and conduct 
himself in a manner which will sustain his master's 
honor. 

The servant of Christ has the noblest of all masters — 
the holiest of all services — the most honorable of all 
positions. 

The servant of a king ever bears about him the re- 
flected honor of the king, and the amount of this honor 
is in proportion to his nearness or remoteness to the 
throne. 

So the servant of the King of kings borrows dignity 
from the Being whom he serves. He wears no outward 
insignia of that dignity, as earthly courtiers do in stars 
or ribbons ; but it is a glory which reflects itself in his 
daily life, and evidences his relation to Jesus by the 
fidelity and zeal which he shows in His service. Bask- 
ing thus in the halo of his divine Master, the servant of 
Christ finds no work too menial, no toil too hard, no 
sacrifice too great for such a Lord. As he studies the 



172 



WAITING AND WATCHING. 



life of His Lord, lie notes how on one occasion He said 
to His disciples, "I am among you as he that serveth"; 
and he marks, also, that in very truth He did on one 
occasion lay aside His garments, gird Himself with a 
towel, pour water into a basin, and wash His disciples' 
feet — the Lord and Master doing the menial work of a 
servant. So when the Christian marks his Master s con- 
descension to servile acts and servile men, he will not 
deem any thing he can do for Jesus either too low or too 
mean. The fact that what he does, he does for Christ, 
lifts it out of the plane of menial duty, and places it in 
the higher region of holy privilege. He learns through 
Christ's words and acts, that nothing is too low for love ; 
nothing too vile for grace; and nothing too sinful for 
atoning blood. He learns that Jesus, by going down to 
the lowest stratum of human society, has sanctified each 
and every class, and ennobled each and every duty. So 
long, then, as we have His Spirit and labor, for His glory, 
we are not mere plodding, drudging, ignorant servants 
— the hirelings of a day ; but we become co-workers with 
God, fellow-laborers w r ith the Lord J esus : doing in His 
name, by His strength, for His sake, the grandest of all 
works, — lifting up the fallen, bringing back the lost, and 
in every way within our means and opportunities win- 
ning souls for Christ. 

Such a service ought to call out prompt obedience, 
loving devotion, unwearied effort, and thorough sym- 
pathy with the aim and purpose of God in the work of 
man's salvation. 

And then, again, mark how even our humblest acts oi 
service — our giving bread to the hungry, drink to the 
thirsty, clothes to the naked ; our visiting a person sick 
in bed, or shut up in prison — are recognized by Christ, 



WAITING AND WATCHING. 



173 



and owned by Him as acts of service rendered person- 
ally to Him, when He says, M Inasmuch as ye have done 
it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me." So that in serving the poor, the sick, 
the imprisoned, we are serving Christ in disguise ; and 
by and by, those who serve Him thus secretly, shall have 
their reward openly, before the assembled universe. 

But, secondly, the text tells us that the Christian is to 
be a light-bearer as well as a servant. Not only must 
his loins be girded, but his lights must be burning. The 
Christian lives in the midst of moral darkness. Sin is 
darkness, and he lives in a world of sin ; a world in 
which men love darkness rather than light, because 
their deeds are evil. Error also is darkness. It is the 
result of a darkened understanding alienated from the 
life of God, and hence the Christian is surrounded by the 
darkness of error as well as by the darkness of sin, and 
together they form a gross darkness which can only be 
dissipated by "the light of the knowledge of the glory 
of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 

As disciples of Him who is " the Light of the world," 
"the Sun of righteousness," u the brightness of the Fa- 
ther's glory," Christians are termed " children of light 
and of the day." They are so, because the light of 
Christ is in them. The light of His life, the light of 
His love, the light of His joy, the light of His hope, 
are to be found in the heart in which Christ Himself 
is formed the hope of glory. Where there is this light 
in the heart, there must of necessity be a raying forth 
of this light in the thoughts, the words, the daily life, 
of the believer in Jesus. If Christ is in you His light 
will shine out through you; and if none shines out 
through you, it will be because there is none in you. 



174 



WAITING AND WATCHING. 



Where the light is, there will be the shining. The ab- 
sence of light proves the absence of Christ ; for you can 
not cover up His light or smother His beams. But this 
light of faith and love and hope and joy is not given 
to us for our mere personal satisfaction and delight; 
we are made light-bearers that we may be light-dis- 
pensers. The light is put within us, not to be hidden 
away, but that through us, as through a reflecting lan- 
tern, it may shine out and give light to all around; so 
that men may see our good works, and glorify our Fa- 
ther which is in heaven. 

As in the Holy Temple the light was " ever to be kept 
burning," it was never to go out; so in Christians, who 
are living temples, the lights are ever to be burning. 
The supply of the oil of grace to keep them burning is 
ever at hand, always ready, and is exhaustless. It is 
given more freely to those who ask for it, than parents 
give good things to their children ; so that any lack of 
supply, arises not from deficiency of material, but lack 
of earnest supplication. 

The necessity for these lights being ever burning 
arises from the personal need of the believer himself ; 
and from the necessity of showing forth to others the 
light and truth which he has found in Jesus. In a pro- 
found moral sense, the whole world, as the apostle says, 
"lieth in darkness." In this darkness-swathed world 
the Christian lives and moves and has his being. How 
is he to live and move and act with any peace, security, 
or satisfaction, unless his lights are burning and throw- 
ing light all around his steps, so that he can see his 
surroundings and his goings, and not stumble and fall 
into the many snares and pitfalls in his path. The per- 
sonal security of the disciple, then, requires that hsr 



WAITING AND WATCHING. 



175 



should let his lights be burning. His spiritual comfort 
also depends on this. St. John, after declaring that 
"God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all," imme- 
diately adds, " If we say that we have fellowship with 
Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the 
truth ; but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, 
we have fellowship one with another." Showing that a 
state of moral darkness, is a virtual alienation of the soul 
from God, and from that joy and fellowship which re- 
sult from abiding in His light; and so the personal com- 
fort of the child of God depends on living in the light of 
God. But these lights are to be kept burning for others 
as well as for ourselves. To light other persons' way, to 
guide other persons home, to protect others from dan- 
ger, and to bring others into safety. They are to shine 
before men so that they may see your good works and 
glorify your Father which is in Heaven. There never 
yet has been a bright example of Christian life which 
man has not secretly reverenced and honored and which 
has not tended to the glory of God. The holier the life, 
the brighter the light. The more the light shines for 
others, the greater is the inner glow of our own hearts, 
and the greater the outer glory given to God. The ab- 
sence of light where we expect to find it, often produces 
most disastrous results. Let but one light-house on but 
one dark night fail to throw out its beams to warn and 
guide, and it may cause the wreck of many vessels. The 
world has a right to expect light from Christians. They 
are professedly children of light, and our Lord designates 
them as the light of the world. If they do not give light, 
if there is no shining out of Christ-like character before 
men, then are they blind guides, and dark lanterns; mis- 
leading souls and dishonoring the Father of lights. 



176 



WAITING AND WATCHING. 



Lastly, the text tells us that the Christian is to be a 
watchman: " and ye yourselves like unto men that wait 
for their Lord." 

The watchman-like character of the Christian is to 
show itself in two ways. First by watching over him- 
self, and secondly by waiting for his returning Lord. 
Over himself he must watch, lest he become careless in 
duty, remiss in keeping his light burning, and be over- 
taken with drowsiness and indifference. Self-watchful- 
ness is the necessary prerequisite to spiritual peace and 
growth. How earnestly does the apostle warn us of 
the deceitfulness of our own hearts; of the power of 
worldly allurements; of the devices of the great adver- 
sary of our souls ; of the insidious ways whereby we are 
entrapped into sin and error. He who does not watch, 
shows that he is unconscious of danger, and this implies 
ignorance of his own heart and a virtual disbelief in 
God's word. The more we know of ourselves, and espe- 
cially the more we know of our character as seen in 
the light of God's countenance, the more are we aware 
of our danger, and the more do we realize our need of 
watchfulness, to be on the lookout for approaching evil, 
and to be vigilant in every duty and at every moment. 
Only the self-confident, and the self-ignorant, are un- 
watchful; and the un watchful always become an easy 
prey to the spoiler. All that the great deceiver asks of 
us is, not that we should openly abandon our religion, 
but simply ungird our loins — let our light go out and 
cease to watch. He will finish the work which we thus 
by carelessness and unwatchfulness begin. 

In addition to this self- watchfulness there is the other 
position to be taken, viz., waiting for our returning Lord. 
This may imply that outlook which all true Christians 



WAITING AND WATCHING. 



177 



like to take in reference to the Second Advent of Christ, 
when He shall come again to judge the world. In 
primitive times, this seemed to be the constant position 
of the Church ; it was looking for and hasting unto the 
coming of the Lord Jesus. Hopes like these still excite 
the hearts of God's children. They love to read the 
prophecies, which tell of His coming again ; of His gath- 
ering together of His saints; of all the millennial glories 
which so light up the pages of the Book of Revelation. 
They love to think that the day is not far distant when 
the Lord J esus shall be revealed from heaven with all 
His holy angels ; and when out of the wreck and burn- 
ing of this wicked world, shall come forth a new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness. 

To the questions, How ? and When ? will our Lord re- 
turn, many answers can be given, and on these questions 
many volumes have been written. We undoubtedly 
find in the Bible many striking and glowing prophecies 
and promises looking to a complete re-ordering of things 
in this our world and sky, much of which we can neither 
grasp nor explain. But they are put there, not to feed 
morbid fancies, and beget wild theories, and make men 
forget present duties in reaching after future glories; 
but they are put there, as blossoms of hope and joy, 
which by and by, under new and different conditions 
from what now exist, will ripen into full flower and 
fruitage. And so to the Christian his Lord will return ; 
if not now, at least u after many days"; and then all the 
grand promises of the Bible shall come to pass with a 
richness and fulness, far beyond what our minds with 
their present capacities, can possibly conceive of spir- 
itual and celestial glory. 

Leaving these things, which may be very near or 
12 



178 



WAITING AND WATCHING. 



very remote; we do know that it is the duty of the 
Christian to take the waiting and watching attitude in 
reference to that period when to him personally the Lord 
shall come, and by death cause him to be " absent from 
the body and present with the Lord." For that day of 
death at the farthest is very near, and its nearness and 
uncertainty, make it all-important that we should have 
our loins girded, our lights burning, our eyes watching, 
when that last enemy comes. If by faith our lives are 
hid with Christ in God, then when death comes and 
finds us "in the Lord," we shall die in the Lord; and of 
all such the Spirit says, " Blessed are the dead who die 
in the Lord." 

There is a sequel to this parable which must not be 
overlooked here, as it is full of most precious comfort 
and delight. Our Lord adds, "Blessed are those ser- 
vants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watch- 
ing : verily I say unto you, That He shall gird Himself, 
and will make them sit down to meat, and will come 
forth and serve them." This blessedness, be it observed, 
does not consist in wealth or honor or high places, or 
in any thing which the world esteems ; but in the fact 
that Christ the Master, will change places with us the 
servants. He will be the girded and waiting servant ; 
and we sit at meat. He will come forth and serve us. 
What a pregnant description of our Lord's condescension 
and the servant's exaltation ! The Master girded, the 
servant sitting ! The servant eating, the Master serv- 
ing ! What does all this mean ? Does it not mean that 
in the other world the servant-like character of our work 
will all be done away. That, freed from the special de- 
mands for waiting and watching, which now exist by 
reason of our sinful natures and our sinful world, we 



WAITING AND WATCHING. 



179 



shall sit down as equals at the marriage supper of the 
Lamb. The great distance which sin and earth now 
interpose between the servant and the Master, will then 
be closed up ; the servant aspect, — girded for duty, the 
watching with lights burning as at night, and the wait- 
ing for a returning Lord, — will all be done away. The 
inequality will be as it were obliterated. Jesus will 
no more call us servants, but Friends, and will minister 
to us, as He passes along, all the pleasures and rejoicings 
of His heavenly kingdom. There the very same Jesus 
who was crucified, and ascended ; the actual personal Sa- 
viour, will impart to each of His disciples, and to the full 
extent of the receptive capacity of each, the fulness of 
his own joy and peace and love ; and they shall be His 
companions, sharers of His light, partakers of His joy, 
occupants of His home forever and ever. With such ex- 
hortations to present duty, with such hopes brightening 
the future, let us ever seek to have our loins girded, 
our lights burning, and our souls waiting and watch- 
ing for our coming Lord. 



XV. 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST; OPPORTUNITIES IM- 
PROVED. 

" Woe unto us ! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening 
are stretched out." — Jer. vi. 4. 

"They constrained Him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward even- 
ing, and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them." — 
Luke xxiv. 29. 

I have put these two texts together because they 
aptly illustrate two conditions of the human mind and 
two classes of men found in every Christian community. 

The first text, from Jeremiah, " Woe unto us ! for the 
day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are 
stretched out," points to a condition of mind unstable 
in purpose, irresolute in action, letting the favorable 
moment for success slip by unimproved, and then, when 
it is gone beyond recall, lamenting its departure with 
doleful lamentation. This was precisely the condition 
of those who uttered these exclamations as recorded by 
Jeremiah. They had been warned by the prophet of 
a foreign invasion of their country ; they had been ex- 
horted to prompt and vigorous action to repel the inva- 
ders. They had ample time and means to do this, but 
they dallied and delayed ; they let the morning hours of 
action pass unused ; let the mid-day still find them in- 
active and neglectful of duty; let the enemy march up 
to their walls ; and then, when the day was nearly spent, 
when they would have but a remnant of time in which 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST; OPPORTUNITIES IMPROVED. 181 

to act, give way to the doleful lament: "Woe unto us! 
for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the even- 
ing are stretched out." The opportunity for success was 
lost; the day of action had been misspent, and the result 
was, captivity and slavery. They could not be roused 
up to a sense of their danger and to the necessity for 
prompt exertion, until it was too late. The day of action 
was going away ; the shadows of the evening which was 
to cover them with its darkness and sorrow, were already 
stretched out. 

Just so it is with multitudes now in reference to the 
work of their salvation. 

The gospel of the Son of God has been preached in 
their ears, until it has become stale and powerless. 
They listen to it, but take no heed to its requirements. 
They know that they are sinners in the sight of God, and 
that if these sins are unrepented of, they must lie down 
in everlasting sorrow. They know that Jesus Christ is 
their Saviour, able and willing to save to the uttermost ; 
yet they accept not His offer of grace. They hear the 
thunders of the law as it peals its terrific tones from 
Sinai, and the wooings of love as they whisper in ten- 
derest accents from Calvary ; but they heed neither the 
terrors of Sinai nor the charms of Calvary. They are 
warned of a judgment to come, and of the eternal pun- 
ishment of the lost; but they listen with incredulity, 
and move on without fear : and so they go on, step after 
step, wasting the precious moments of the early daAvn 
of life, the serene hours of the morning, the work-time 
of noon, the declining days of past-meridian, and they 
find themselves towards the close of a departing day, 
and with the long-drawn shadows of the evening deep- 
ening into night around them, unprepared to meet the 



182 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST; 



coming darkness. And so they take up, when too late, 
the lament, "Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, 
for the shadows of the evening are stretched out." 

There are few things so saddening to the mind of those 
who have reached middle life, as the memory of wasted 
opportunities and neglected duties. If a man has been 
brought up in a Christian family, and educated in Bible 
truth, he can not but feel the old instruction of a godly 
father, or pious mother, or childhood's teacher, come back 
upon him with almost reproachful utterances, at his neg- 
lect of acknowledged duties, and his procrastination in 
putting off the time of repentance and faith. He hears 
these warning voices urging him to accept at once the 
proffers of redeeming love. He recalls his early teach- 
ing and recognizes inwardly its truth and his duty. He 
is troubled and uneasy in view of his neglect of his soul, 
and yet "the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of 
riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke 
the word, and it becometh unfruitful." 

Look for a moment at the opportunities which the 
Church affords to all attendants on her service, not only 
of learning their duty, but also of practicing it to the 
glory of God. 

With almost inspired wisdom the morning and even- 
ing and occasional services of our Church are so ar- 
ranged as that each year the whole life of J esus, from 
His annunciation, to His nativity; from the manger to 
the cross; from the grave to His ascension, from His 
ascension to the inauguration of the Dispensation of the 
Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, is brought distinctly 
before us. Not only so, but twenty-five or twenty-six 
Sundays of the year are specifically set apart to teach 
and premonish the people upon the great doctrines of 



OPPORTUNITIES IMPROVED. 



183 



the Bible; while the godly lives of the apostles and 
evangelists and other holy persons, whose names are in 
the Book of Life, are wisely commended by special les- 
sons and collects, because they are examples to us of 
saintly faith and piety which it becomes us to copy. 
There is the season of Advent, when the Church em- 
phatically blows the trumpet in Zion, and calls upon all 
her children, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord." There 
is the season of the Epiphany, when another special ap- 
peal is made to us as Gentiles, to welcome and worship 
the new-found King. There is the season of Lent, when 
the Church invites with most beseeching entreaty her 
sons and daughters to self-examination, fasting, confes- 
sion of sin, repentance, and prayer. There is the season 
of Passion Week, when the recital of the doings of the 
Holy Week, when Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, 
when He was betrayed, etc., are each passed slowly in 
review before the minds of the congregation. There is 
the season of Easter, with its grand resurrection anthem, 
f Christ is risen ! " There is the bright season of the 
Ascension, lifting up our thoughts to where our ascended 
Saviour dwells. There is the season of Whitsunday, 
when the Church celebrates the visible descent of the 
Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost; and each of these is 
a distinct appeal to the soul, enforced and presented by 
the Holy Ghost in the Bible, and by the ministers of 
God in the pulpit. 

You can not plead ignorance of the truth. You can 
not plead that you have had no warning voice and no 
welcoming invitation. 

Then, again, look at the opportunities for repentance 
and faith which God has given you in the daily provi- 
dence of life. You have been rich, perhaps, and He has 



184 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST; 



made you poor — Why? That He may give you spiritual 
riches, which moth and rust can not corrupt. You have 
been poor and He has made you rich — Why ? That you 
might " remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that 
giveth thee power to get wealth." You have been well, 
and He has laid you on a bed of sickness — Why? That 
you might consider your latter end. You have been sick 
and He has made you well — Why? That you should 
love your Divine Healer, and seek for your spiritual heal- 
ing. You have been called to sorrow and mourning; 
a beloved wife, a devoted husband, a darling child, an 
honored parent, has been taken from you — Why ? That 
you may be weaned from earth — fasten your affections 
on things above, and prepare yourself to meet death in 
peace. How many of these providences have each one 
of you experienced? Try and call to mind what they 
are, and mark how loudly God spake to you in each 
one of them: son, daughter, come to me; prepare to 
meet thy God. Your life is full of the echoes of God's 
voice speaking to you in His daily providence, as well 
as in the inspired word and through the ministry of His 
Church. Yet hour after hour has glided away, and you 
have hesitated, wavered, procrastinated, put off to a 
more convenient season. The day of life has touched 
its meridian; it is declining towards the western horizon; 
the evening shadows lie upon your path, and you are 
not saved. 

Shall life's sun go wholly down, shall the night of 
death wrap you in its starless mantle, without one hon- 
est effort on your part to secure your soul's salvation ? 

Let us turn now to the other text. 

The one which we have been considering refers to 
wasted opportunities; to fearful neglects; to a time of 



OPPORTUNITIES IMPROVED. 



185 



action grievously misspent, and so resulting in personal 
and eternal ruin. 

The other text is just the reverse. It speaks of a won- 
drous opportunity, promptly, gladly, embraced and en- 
joyed. It tells of seizing upon propitious moments, and 
making them useful for eternity. "Abide with us; for it 
is toward evening, and the day is far spent." 

On the afternoon of the day of Christ's resurrection, 
two disciples were returning from Jerusalem to their 
home at Emmaus, and were conversing with great ear- 
nestness as they journeyed, when a stranger approached 
and, attracted by their mournful and excited manner, 
asked, " What manner of communications are these that 
ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad ? " To 
this question one replied, "Art thou only a stranger in 
Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are 
come to pass there in these days? " The stranger, for the 
purpose of drawing out their minds still more, asked, 
"What things?" to which they replied, "Concerning Je- 
sus of Nazareth which was a prophet mighty in word and 
deed before God and all the people: and how the chief 
priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned 
to death, and have crucified Him. But we trusted that 
it had been He which should have redeemed Israel: 
and besides all this, to-day is the third day since these 
things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our 
company made us astonished, which were early at the 
sepulchre; and when they found not His body, they 
came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, 
which said that He was alive. And certain of them 
which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it 
even so as the women had said: but Him they saw not." 
Then said the stranger, " fools, and slow of heart to 



186 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST; 



believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not 
Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into 
His glory ? And beginning at Moses and all the proph- 
ets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the 
things concerning Himself. And they drew nigh unto 
the village, whither they went : and He made as though 
He would have gone further. But they constrained 
Him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, 
and the day is far spent. And He w T ent in to tarry with 
them ! " 

Here was an instance of a ready seizing hold of an 
unexpected opportunity of grace ; of an earnest con- 
straining appeal to one for further instruction and bless- 
ing; of an unwillingness to lose so precious a season 
of deepening their knowledge of the truth thus marvel- 
lously vouchsafed to them ; and yet they did not know 
then, that the stranger was Jesus. He had not then 
made Himself known to them. He was to them only a 
spiritually-minded, and scripture-filled stranger, whose 
conversation riveted their attention, engrossed their 
minds, fired their imaginations, cleared away their 
doubts, and made their souls to glow and burn with 
unwonted fervor as they took in His words, and as He 
opened to them the Scriptures. And oh ! were they not 
repaid? Were they not well rewarded for their devout 
attention, their readiness to hear, their willingness to be 
taught, their earnestness to secure still further His pres- 
ence and instruction ? 

Yet, beloved, should I speak extravagantly, if I said 
that Jesus often reveals Himself to His disciples now, 
with as much preciousness as He did to the two at Em- 
maus? I think not. They, indeed, had His personal 
presence; but yet they did not know until just as He 



OPPORTUNITIES IMPROVED. 



187 



vanished out of their sight, that He was Jesus. They lis- 
tened to Him, not as their Lord and Master, but as to a 
wise and well-instructed stranger ; they heard Him speak 
only two or three hours at the most, and only about the 
Messianic aspect of the Old Testament. Their eyes were 
holden that they should not know Him until He made 
Himself known in the breaking of bread; and before 
they had time to recover from the surprise of the revela- 
tion, u He vanished out of their sight." 
But what, brethren, have we ? 

We have not the unknown, but the known, J esus to 
be our companion. We have Him to walk with us, not 
in one afternoon's walk of seven or eight miles, but each 
day of our life, and all the way of our pilgrimage. We 
hear Him speak to us, not in the tones and accent of a 
stranger, but as our own dear Lord and Saviour. To us, 
by His Spirit, He reveals, not only the prophets of the 
Old Testament, and the things there written concerning 
Himself, but in the full canon of the completed Script- 
ures ; in the prophecies of Revelation, as well as those 
thousands of years before. We hear Him in His ex- 
quisite picture-parables, those painted windows of the 
Gospel cathedral, bedight with the tracery of the divine 
artist; we see Him as the wondrous miracle-worker in 
the realms of sea and sky, mind and matter, life and 
death. To us, He speaks in the words of His Sermon 
on the Mount, and in the discourse in the upper room of 
Jerusalem. We listen to His prayer, on the mountain 
top, in the garden, and in the words of His own match- 
less form ; we witness His daily life, through the three 
years of His holy ministry ; we go with Him to Calvary, 
see Him wrapped in linen and spices, laid in Joseph's 
grave. We hear Him, after His resurrection, tell doubt- 



188 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST; 



ing Thomas, "Reach hither thy hand and thrust it into 
my side; and be not faithless, but believing," and ask 
Peter, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" We 
accompany Him to the Mount of Olives, catch the words 
of His last and great commission, and watch His reced- 
ing form as He is taken up and "a cloud receives Him 
out of sight," Is not this, then, better than that which 
the two disciples had? His word to each of us is, "Lo, 
I am with you always"; "If any man love me, my Father 
will love him, and we will come and make our abode 
with him." Yes, dwell in us as an abiding guest. 

But all depends on our doing as these disciples did, 
constraining Jesus to "abide with us." He will be with 
us, if we seek Him, not only in His word, but in the as- 
semblies of His people; for He has said, "Where two or 
three are gathered together in my name, there am I in 
the midst of them." He will be with us in the celebra- 
tion of the Holy Communion, for there He is specially 
set forth crucified before us. He will be with us in the 
worship of the great congregation, for He ever inhabiteth 
the praises of Israel. Xor in these public places only. 
He will abide with us in our hearts, if we are meek and 
lowly in heart, for such hearts are His temples. He will 
abide with us in our homes, if, like Mary and Martha of 
Bethany, we ever keep a guest-chamber for Him. He 
will be with us in our business, if, like Matthew at the 
receipt of custom, our ear is ever open to hear, and our 
hearts ever ready to obey, His call, "Follow thou me." 
He will ever be with us in our studies, if, like the doc- 
tors of old in the Temple, we seat Jesus in the midst, 
and ask Him the questions which make for our eternal 
peace. 

There is no unwillingness on the part of Jesus to 



OPPORTUNITIES IMPROVED. 



189 



abide with us. It is that our hearts are not prepared to 
receive and welcome such a visitant. Is not this a griev- 
ous wrong which we are doing to our souls? Shall we 
allow them to continue in such a condition, that we can 
not, by reason of our cherished lusts, or sins, or covet- 
ousness, or worldly-mindedness, constrain Him to come 
in and abide with us? 

Finally, there is one point which some of you have 
reached, to which all are hastening, when it will be set- 
tled whether we shall exclaim with the deluded and un- 
prepared Jews in Jeremiah's day, "Woe unto us! for 
the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are 
stretched out," or whether, in response to our constrain- 
ing importunity, Jesus will go in and abide with us. 
The day of life is to all of us fast going away: the 
shadows of life's evening are, to many of us, lengthening 
and deepening. Sunset is near: the night of death is 
at hand. 

If your manifold and most graciously bestowed op- 
portunities of securing salvation, and conquering your 
spiritual enemies, are allowed to slip away unused; if 
the convenient season passes without your making it 
convenient to accept the offered grace; — then must 
you very soon — how soon we know not, for God has 
said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man" — 
then, I say, shall you soon take up the doleful cry, "Woe 
unto us ! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the 
evening are stretched out." If, on the other hand, fa- 
vored as you are with such manifestations of J esus' love 
and grace, you say to Him, "Abide with us," and by your 
faith and love "constrain" Him to tarry with you, how 
exquisitely sweet and precious will His presence be to 
your soul ! How His life will flow into your life : open- 



190 OPPORTUNITIES LOST; OPPORTUNITIES IMPROVED. 

ing your mind to understand the Scriptures; opening 
your heart to His indwelling grace ; filling you with a 
joy and peace that passeth understanding; and enrich- 
ing you with all needed strength and moral comeliness, 
so that you will be made "meet for the inheritance of 
the saints in light." 

Let not Christ now present with you, pass away from 
you and leave you to die Christless, and to go Christless 
to the judgment and to eternity. Constrain Him to abide 
with you. He will readily assent: He is more willing 
to be your guest, than you are to be His host. But de- 
lay not, for it is tow r ard evening, and the day is far 
spent; and when the day of grace once sets behind the 
horizon, it is followed by no to-morrow; for the uniform 
declaration of God's word and God's ministers, and God's 
Church, and God's providences is, " Behold now is the 
accepted time; behold noiv is the day of salvation.'' 
And " there is no knowledge or wisdom or device in the 
grave whither thou goest." "And as the tree falls so 
it lies." 



XVI. 



THE ANSWER TO THE BEREAVED HEART. 

"Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre ?" 
Mark xvi. 3. 

The dead body of our Lord Jesus was, by the pious 
care of Joseph of Arimathea, removed from the cross. 
He had gone to Pilate to beg the body that it might not 
be buried in one common grave with the two thieves, 
and Pilate, recognizing in him " an honorable counsel- 
lor," readily granted his request. In conjunction, there- 
fore, with Nicodemus, he wrapped the body in clean 
new linen, having first spread over it about an hundred 
pounds weight of myrrh and aloes ; and then the two, 
by the aid of servants, laid the precious corpse in a new 
tomb which Joseph had hewn out of a solid rock in his 
garden for his family burying-place. Having deposited 
Him here, " where never man was before laid," "they 
rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and 
departed." The proceedings of Joseph and Nicodemus 
were watched with intense interest by the few women 
who had lingered around the cross, and who, as soon as 
the rites which the hour permitted were over, hastened 
to the city and bought sweet spices that they might, so 
soon as the Sabbath was past, go and anoint more fully 
the body of their Lord. The intervening Sabbath was 
sacredly kept; but the twilight of the first day of the 



192 THE ANSWER TO THE BEREAVED HEART. 



week saw them up and ready; and ere the sun had 
risen on the morning of the first day of the week, six 
or seven women might have been seen hastily moving 
through the city towards the garden of Joseph, bearing 
in their hands the compounded unguents with which 
they purposed to anoint the buried Jesus. There was 
but little converse by the way, for their hearts were too 
sad, and their errand too mournful. But as they neared 
the tomb an unexpected difficulty rose to their minds as 
they recalled the way in which the tomb was secured ; 
for some of them had seen the men roll a very great 
stone before its mouth, and they felt that their womanly 
strength was not equal to remove it. Hence they ask 
in the words of the text, "Who shall roll us away the 
stone from the door of the sepulchre ? " Great then was 
their joy, when, on looking at the tomb, they saw that 
the stone was rolled away and the entrance open. It 
is not my design to follow out this narrative in its his- 
toric details, but rather to use the words of the text as 
suggestive of various questions, the answers to which 
will be appropriate to this Easter morning, and profit- 
able to your own souls. 

The first question which the text suggests is, Why 
was there ever a sepulchre on earth ? 

When the earth was created by the word of God, 
and fitted up as the habitation of man, Moses tells us, 
" And God saw every thing that He had made, and, be- 
hold, it was very good." It was man's disobedience to 
God, in the Garden of Eden, that brought death into the 
world and all our woe. With such a goodly world, and 
such divinely created beings in it to people it and rule 
over it, why should there ever be found in it a sepul- 
chre ? A sepulchre ! it tells of sorrow, sickness, be- 



THE ANSWER TO THE BEREAVED HEART. 193 

reavement, death. It is a blot on the earth ; it is a gash 
cut in the earth's bosom. How came it there? The 
apostle furnishes an answer : " By one man sin entered 
into the world, and death by sin ; and so death passed 
upon all men, for that all have sinned." The sin of 
man, small so far as the act was concerned, but vast 
in the principle involved, and in the results it entailed, 
placed him and his posterity under the curse of the law 
which declared, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," and 
gave to his posterity "an infection of nature," "so that 
the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit ; and there- 
fore m «very person born into the world it deserveth 
God's wrath and damnation." This is the cause of earth's 
being turned into a Bochim, and why, all over the land, 
and far down in the ocean, are found the graves of one 
hundred and fifty generations of men, from the infant 
an hour old to the patriarch who numbered nine hun- 
dred sixty and nine years. Hence every pang of sick- 
ness speaks of God's broken law; every corpse of the 
power of sin; every grave of the penalty of disobedi- 
ence ; every bereavement of the fearful retribution which 
sin procures from an offended God. They are each 
monitors to tell us what we lost in Eden, what we in- 
herited from Adam, what we suffer for sin, and what we 
deserve from God. The earth is indeed full of sepul- 
chres, but the sepulchre is full of light ; and this leads 
me to the second question, viz. : 

Why was there a sepulchre for Jesus? Because it 
was ordained in the counsel of the Godhead that Christ 
should be buried, as well as die. All the blessings of 
the covenant of grace are inseparably connected with 
the death of Christ, and it is peculiarly interesting to 
observe that from the first prophecy in Eden to the last 
13 



194 THE ANSWER TO THE BEREAVED HEART. 



of aged Simeon ; from the first type of Christ in the pa- 
triarchal dispensation to the last in the Mosaic econ- 
omy; from the first lamb slain by Adam, to the last 
lamb offered up in the Temple on the morning of the 
crucifixion ; there is a continual pointing to a vicarious 
and an expiating death which should be made by Mes- 
siah for the redemption of His people. The death of 
Christ is the one great theme of the Bible. It is His 
blood-shedding which is to satisfy divine justice; His 
blood, which is to make reconciliation between God and 
man; His blood which is to purchase redemption for 
us ; His blood which is to open a way of access to the 
mercy-seat; His blood which secures eternal life; and 
it is His blood that constitutes the theme of that song 
which shall fill the arches of the upper sanctuary with 
the chorus, "Thou hast redeemed us by Thy blood." 
Hence it was necessary that He should die the death, 
because thus only could He bear the curse due to us, 
and make the atoning sacrifice acceptable to God. But 
He must be buried, as well as die on the cross. Had 
He not been laid in the sepulchre, we might have had 
reason to doubt the reality of His death. Had He risen 
from the dead as they were taking Him from the cross, 
or as they were bearing Him to the tomb ; it might have 
been said, that He had only swooned away through 
pain, or was feigning death to avoid having His legs 
broken by the soldiers, or pretending to work the mira- 
cle of the resurrection, when in fact life had not depart- 
ed from Him. To remove all doubt, therefore, as to 
the reality of Christ's death, that both friends and foes 
should be assured that His soul had in truth gone out 
of His body, that life was really extinct; it was ordered 
that He should be buried. Hence as the death of Christ 



THE ANSWER TO THE BEREAVED HEART. 195 

was a true, real, and proper death, so His burial was a 
true, real, and proper burial. His body at death was 
confided to men above suspicion. His interment was 
witnessed by many spectators, and His tomb was such 
that it was eminently adapted to guard against a spuri- 
ous, and to illustrate a genuine, resurrection. 

Thus was it necessary that Christ should be buried 
in order to verify His death; and because as our sub- 
stitute, He must lie down in the grave, whither we all 
must go. The resurrection is to take place not from 
the bed of death, not from the bier, but from the dust, 
from the grave; and He who was to be the " first-fruits " 
of our resurrection, who was both to illustrate its char- 
acter, and make known its power, must also Himself lie 
in one of earth's graves, that He might thus sanctify the 
world as the resting-place of His sleeping saints; and 
must also Himself come from one of earth's graves, that 
He might through the breaking of the bars of that sepul- 
chre, break the bars of every other sepulchre, and pour 
the light of the resurrection day in the else dark ceme- 
teries of earth. This then is the answer to the question, 
Why did Jesus lie in that sepulchre ? 

The next query suggested by the text is, Why was 
that stone put there? St. Matthew gives the reason 
thus : " The next day, that followed the day of the 
preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came to- 
gether unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that 
deceiver said, while He was yet alive, After three days 
I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepul- 
chre be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples 
come by night, and steal Him away, and say unto the 
people, He is risen from the dead; so the last error shall 
be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have 



196 THE ANSWER TO THE BEREAVED HEART. 



a watch : go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So 
they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the 
stone, and setting a watch." 

Never did men more thoroughly overreach themselves 
than did the chief priests and Pharisees in desiring Pilate 
to seal the stone, and guard the sepulchre. The very 
means by which they hoped to prevent the resurrection, 
were made the occasion of more gloriously effecting the 
purpose of God, and we should have lost some of the 
most striking and irrefragable proofs of the resurrection 
had not this request been made by the J ews and granted 
by Pilate. But for this Roman guard, and the remark- 
able determination of the council, the testimony to the 
resurrection would have been wholly from the friends 
of Christ, and liable of course to the charge of suspicion 
and design ; while now, Roman soldiers, and Jewish ene- 
mies, are made to bear unwilling witness to this event. 
Thus did God cause the wrath of man to praise Him, and 
the plottings of the enemies of Christ to prove the strong- 
est props to the doctrine of the resurrection. The stone 
was rolled then to the mouth of the sepulchre by Joseph 
to protect the body of Christ. It was sealed, so that it 
could not be removed without being detected. It was 
guarded by a band of Roman soldiers disciplined in the 
stern severities of military law, in order to drive away 
or capture His disciples should they attempt to seize the 
body ; and its presence, its sealing, and its guarding, de- 
signed as obstacles to the resurrection, were really so 
many proofs of its accomplishment. For that Roman 
guard was dispersed, that official seal of the Sanhedrim 
was broken, that "very great" stone was rolled away. 

Here arise other questions, Who rolled that stone 
away? and for what purpose? St. Matthew will give 



THE ANSWER TO THE BEREAVED HEART. 197 

us the answer: " As it began to dawn toward the first 
day of the week there was a great earthquake ; for the 
angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and 
rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. 
His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment 
white as snow; and for fear of him the keepers did 
shake, and became as dead men." When the two Mary's 
saw the angel they were afraid, but he said unto them, 
"Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was 
crucified. He is not here : for He is risen, as He said. 
Come, see the place where the Lord lay." Here again 
we see the wonder-working power of God in the trans- 
actions connected with this scene. Had our Lord rolled 
away the stone, it might have been said that He was not 
dead, but only in a state of asphyxia, or trance, and that, 
reviving He did in the exercise of desperate strength, 
remove the rock at the tomb's mouth, and by collusion 
with the soldiers escape from the sepulchre and so give 
birth to the story of the resurrection. 

But in consequence of the earthquake and the angelic 
appearance, the Roman guard did shake with fear, and 
"became as dead men," and while they thus seemed pet- 
rified with alarm, Jesus calmly rises from His rocky bed, 
folds His grave clothes, and lays them in order in the 
tomb; and then walks forth "the Resurrection and the 
Life," the Conqueror of death and the Victor of the 
grave. 

Thus have we briefly answered the questions arising 
out of the text : Why was there a sepulchre on earth ? 
Why a sepulchre for Jesus? Why was that stone rolled 
to its mouth ? Who rolled it away ? 

And now we no longer ask the question which the 
mourning women put, " Who shall roll us away the 



198 THE ANSWER TO THE BEREAVED HEART. 



stone from the door of the sepulchre ? " for on this day- 
is heard from the rising to the setting sun, the joyful 
exclamation, u Christ is risen from the dead, and become 
the first-fruits of them that slept." For thousands of 
years had bereaved hearts been asking, " Who shall roll 
us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre ? " The 
loved and the lamented had been laid to rest in the grave, 
and all that hope could do, and all that affection could 
devise, was to keep a little taper lighted at the grave, to 
plant cypress or shrubbery in newly-turned earth, to 
sculpture an inverted torch on the lintels of the tomb, 
or to embalm with precious spices the departed one, as 
if to defeat the universal sentence, " Dust thou art, and 
unto dust shalt thou return." 

Strikingly is this confirmed when we compare the in- 
scriptions on heathen and Christian tombs. Look at the 
tombs which still exist in that cradle-land of religion, art, 
and science, Egypt ; and we find sculptured and painted 
over and upon them representations of jugglers and danc- 
ing women, and grotesque animals, and unsightly gods, 
and domestic or festive scenes ; every thing which speaks 
of this world, nothing of the next. 

Look at the grave-yards of Mohammedan countries 
with their painted and gilded tablets, and turbaned head- 
stones, and as you decipher their Arabic inscriptions, you 
find them all pointing to a life of sensual bliss in the 
paradise of the false prophet. 

But most emphatically is this contrast brought out at 
Rome in the Galleria Lapidaria in the Vatican. Open- 
ing the door of this long gallery, you see upon your 
right hand, the wall covered with broken tombstones 
and tablets taken from the burial-places of old pagan 
Rome; and on your left, the wall lined with slabs and 



THE ANSWER TO THE BEREAVED HEART. 199 

inscriptions dug up from the catacombs where, under 
Home itself, were concealed and buried thousands of 
the early Christians. On the pagan side, you see the 
records of despair, and read words of anger against the 
gods. u O relentless fortune," writes a mother over her 
child, "who delighteth in cruel death! why is Maximus 
so suddenly snatched from me?" Read another inscrip- 
tion: "While I lived well! my drama is now ended; 
soon yours will be: farewell, and applaud me." Read 
another: "I, Proscopius, who lived twenty years, lift up 
my hand against God who took me away innocent." 
On the Christian side, you find records of peace and 
hope, comfort and resignation: "Sabbatia has retired in 
the sleep of peace." "Arethusa sleeps in God." "Salo- 
nica, thy soul is in bliss, thou wilt rise with the saints 
through Christ," "Alexander is not dead, but lives be- 
yond the stars, and his body rests in this tomb." "The 
wave of death has not dared to deprive Constans of the 
crown to which he was entitled by giving his life to the 
sword." 

All the sorrows of the old world, and all the sorrows 
of the heathen world, are of men without hope. For 
them there is a great stone at the door of the sepulchre, 
and though they have yearned for some conqueror of 
the grave, some one who should do battle with Death 
and despoil him of his dart, yet they have found no one 
in the heroes of antiquity who could roll away the stone. 
There it lay until the first Easter morning broke in the 
east, and two of the same heavenly host who had sung to 
the shepherds the song, "Behold, I bring you glad tid- 
ings," again sang the thrilling words, as they sat upon 
the rolled-away stone, "He is not here: for He is risen 
as He said: Come, see the place where the Lord lay." 



200 THE ANSWER TO THE BEREAVED HEART. 



We must each one of us lie down in the grave. One 
by one we shall drop into the silent tomb, and a stone 
shall be rolled to the door of our sepulchre. Tears will 
fall there, sighs will be heard there, hearts will burst 
there, and long nights of woe and days of anguish shall 
follow the mourners as they return to the desolate house, 
the silent chamber, the vacant bed. Sorrow at the death 
of friends we may. Jesus " groaned in spirit" when 
told of Lazarus 7 death. Shed tears at the graves of 
friends we may. " Jesus wept" at the grave of Lazarus. 
But we must not mourn as those "who have no hope." 
We must not weep as if we had no one to " roll us away 
the stone from the door of the sepulchre." Our blessed 
Saviour has sanctified every grave by lying in His 
grave. He has perfumed every tomb by the spicery of 
His burial clothes, and has assured us in the rolled-away 
stone of His sepulchre that each sepulchre of earth shall 
be uncovered and its imprisoned inmates be set free by 
the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. Thus 
the resurrection of Christ secures the resurrection of 
His people. He is "the first-fruits." He is the "wave- 
sheaf." He is "the forerunner" from the dead. The 
"first-fruits" has risen, and we, as the remaining har- 
vest, shall rise. The "wave-sheaf" has been presented 
in the temple ; and we, the represented people, are holy 
through its consecration. Our "Head" has been lifted 
up from the dust; and we, as members of His body, 
must be raised up to newness of life by Him who is "the 
Resurrection and the Life." The grave will hold our 
bodies but a little while. The dust shall return to the 
earth as it was for a short period. And while we lie 
there, we shall be watched over with loving care. But 
when the resurrection trump shall sound, we shall all 



THE ANSWER TO THE BEREAVED HEART. 201 



rise from the dead and stand up a great company- 
clothed with glorified bodies, and caught up to meet the 
descending Jesus, and to reign with Him forever and 
ever. 

"Flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God, 
neither doth corruption inherit incorruption," but each 
redeemed soul will "be clothed upon with our house (or 
covering, or tabernacle) which is from heaven." This 
f earthly house of our tabernacle " must be dissolved, so 
that we may "be clothed upon, that mortality might be 
swallowed up of life." What this spiritual body shall 
be we know not, except that it shall be made like unto 
Christ's own glorious body according to the mighty work- 
ing "whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Him- 
self." This is our comfort and our hope. This is God's 
declaration and promise. If then we live in the Lord in 
our daily walk and conversation, we shall of necessity be 
found "in the Lord" when death comes, and finding us 
there, and dying there, ours will indeed be a blessed 
and happy death; for the word of God says, "Blessed are 
the dead who die in the Lord, even so, saith the Spirit, 
for they rest from their labors." 



"Peaceful rest ! 

Whose waking is supremely blest." 



XVIL 



WAITING FOR JESUS. 

" And it came to pass that when Jesus was returned, the people gladly 
received Him; for they were all waiting for Him." — Luke viii. 40. 

The life of our blessed Lord presents us with many 
striking vicissitudes. They began with His birth, they 
followed His infancy, they marked His boyhood, and they 
attended Him in His public career, from His baptism in 
Jordan until His ascension into heaven. Now caressed, 
now cursed; now sought after, now fled from; now wor- 
shipped, now reviled; now feasting, now fasting; now 
with the great, learned, and noble, and now with publi- 
cans, harlots, and sinners ; now well lodged at Bethany, 
and now not having where to lay His head ; now invited 
to the synagogue, and now forcibly thrust out. Such 
was His varied experience, painful and pleasing, as He 
lived from day to day, and journeyed from place to 
place. The chapter which records the text peculiarly 
illustrates the sudden changes which befell the Saviour. 
On the evening of the day on which He had uttered and 
expounded the parable of "The Sower," He said unto His 
disciples, "Let us pass over unto the other side''; for 
the multitude so thronged around Him that He could 
get no rest. Accordingly, He entered into one of the 
fishing ships on the lake, and, exhausted with the labors 
of the day, He lay down on a pillow in the stern of the 



WAITING FOR JESUS. 



203 



vessel and fell asleep. While thus recruiting His wasted 
human strength, one of those sudden gusts to which 
that mountainous region is subject, swept over the lake 
with terrific fury, heaped up its waters into threatening 
waves, and rolled them into the ship, and so imperilled 
the vessel, that, unable longer to contend with the rag- 
ing winds and waves, His disciples awoke Him with the 
cry, "Lord, save us, we perish ! " " And He arose," says 
St. Mark, "and rebuked the wind, and said unto the 
sea, Peace, be still ! and the wind ceased, and there was 
a great calm." 

How the Man and the God were here strangely blend- 
ed ! The Man, tossed up and down in His fishing shal- 
lop, yet fast asleep, recruiting a strength exhausted by 
the labor of the day. The God, rebuking the rushing 
wind, calming, by a word, the angry waves, and turn- 
ing the scowling face of the sky into starlike serenity 
and peace. 

In the morning He landed in the country of the Gada- 
renes, and there wrought the wondrous miracle of cast- 
ing out a legion of devils from one poor maniac, whose 
dwelling had been the tombs, and whose supernatu- 
ral strength and fierceness, had made him the terror of 
all the country round about. But as this miracle was 
wrought in connection with that just punishment which 
He inflicted on those sinful violators of Mosaic law, in 
destroying the herd of swine, which they there fed ; the 
display of power only incensed them the more, and the 
whole city of Gadara came out to meet Him, and " be- 
sought Him that He would depart out of their coast." 
He accordingly went back to the ship, and turning its 
prow to Capernaum, recrossed the Sea of Galilee, and 
"came again unto His own city." 



204 



WAITING FOR JESUS. 



Having left on the previous night, the people who 
had heard Him the day before, were sad when the morn- 
ing dawned, to find that Jesus had departed. In the 
mean time others had arrived in Capernaum, bringing 
the sick and the lame to be healed, so that " great mul- 
titudes had gathered together." When, therefore, the 
little ship in which Jesus was, sailed into the port, they 
crowded down to the beach, to welcome Him, to hear 
again His words, and receive again His blessing. 

A few hours before, a multitude gathered from all the 
country of the Gadarenes, had met to urge Him to de- 
part ; now, a multitude gathered from the region round 
about Capernaum, went out to meet Him, and, in the 
words of St. Luke, " they gladly received Him, for they 
were all waiting for Him." Kejected in Gadara, waited 
for in Capernaum ; thrust out of one city, received back 
gladly into His own. Thus the sunshine and the shade 
ever lay upon the Saviour's pathway ; but the sunshine 
was brief, seldom, and gleamed across His path with 
transient brightness; the shadows were deep, frequent, 
and spread their sombre hues over the large portion of 
His earthly life. The Saviour was to be " made perfect," 
or consecrated for us, as our great High Priest, not by 
joys, but " through sufferings." 

We behold not the form which the eye of the Gal- 
ilean rested on as He stepped ashore from His fishing- 
boat. We see no moving figure pausing before the 
crowd, and dropping gracious words out of His mouth; 
but the eye of faith beholds a present Saviour, and hears 
Him in His words of love, of pardon, and of peace. 

But do we, like the people of Capernaum gladly re- 
ceive Him, and are we all ivaiting for Him ? 

The true child of God regards Christ as the " chiefest 



WAITING FOR JESUS. 



205 



among ten thousand," and the " one altogether lovely." 
He loves Him with a full, unreserved, gushing affection. 
He delights to ponder upon His character; and no artist 
studies more enthusiastically the lines and coloring of 
the great masters of painting and sculpture, than the 
Christian does the features of his Divine Redeemer. 
Every trait and characteristic of His life is a study, and 
each phase and lineament of His mind, as reflected in His 
word and acts, is treasured with spiritual joy. The eye 
of the soul follows Him whithersoever He goeth, and 
watches His numberless deeds of mercy and of grace; 
and the ear of the heart listens to His words, and stores 
them up for future meditation. Every thing that the 
Saviour is, or does, or says, is precious to the new-born 
soul, and it is the leading desire of the believer to be 
near Jesus. His language is, 

* 1 Lord, forever at Thy side 

Let my place and portion be." 

Alas ! that this is not always his condition ; but the 
intruding world, the remaining corruption, the ensnar- 
ing tempter, the evil heart of unbelief, struggle for mas- 
tery, and though not completely successful, yet so dis- 
turb the peace, and fill the mind with doubts, and cloud 
up the soul with the dense vapors of sinful thoughts 
and lusts, that at times it seems that he must perish. 
And did the believer yield to these feelings, he would 
perish. It is just what the tempter wants; first, to 
make him sin, then doubt of forgiveness, then despair 
of mercy, and, if he could, would then send him out, 
like Judas, to hang himself, that he might the more 
readily clutch his prey. God, however, does not suffer 
His chosen ones to be tempted above what they are able ; 



206 



WAITING FOR JESUS. 



and though we must, as long as we live, be exposed to 
the perturbations which will ever disturb the true repose 
of the soul, on the Lord Jesus; and though we shall 
never on earth, be free from inbred corruption, which, 
like leaven, will ever ferment and effervesce in the soul; 
yet the dominant aim of the heart is still preserved, the 
paramount love still cherished, the sheet anchor, hope, 
is still clung to, and the faith once delivered to the 
saints is still held fast as a priceless heritage from the 
Lord. 

We may seem to sleep, but "the heart waketh"; and 
the waking hours of the heart, are waiting hours for 
Christ. In the midst of our most grievous declensions 
we will not w T holly give up Christ. Sometimes the very 
thought of abandoning Him startles us into a conscious- 
ness how far we have wandered from Him, and speeds 
us, with sorrowing hearts and penitent emotions, back 
to His arms. 

As, then, the Christian finds his highest good in Christ; 
as, though sorely pressed and tempted, he would not for 
worlds abandon Christ ; as, in the midst of his darkest 
doubts, he still clings, though with trembling faith, to 
his Saviour ; so is he, at times, in a peculiarly waiting 
state of mind, which may best be described, perhaps, 
as that expectation of good from Him, and seeking of 
joy in Him, which the soul experiences when it awakes 
to a realization of its sluggishness, and looks up, and 
longs for fresh outpourings of grace. This is a position 
which every child of God should occupy ; ever expect- 
ing good from Christ, ever seeking joy in Him, and thus 
be ever waiting for our Lord. 

Eich are the promises made to those who thus faith- 
fully wait upon Him. "They that wait upon the Lord 



WAITING FOR JESUS. 



207 



shall renew their strength." "The Lord is good to them 
that wait for Him." "Wait on the Lord, be of good 
courage, and He shall strengthen thy heart." "Those 
that wait upon the Lord, shall inherit the earth." 
"Keep mercy, and wait upon thy God continually." In 
all these passages the idea of expecting good from God, 
and the seeking of joy in Him alone, is the prominent 
one, and wherever we find these two conditions, spring- 
ing from faith in Christ, there do we find that waiting 
which will secure the promised blessings. This wait- 
ing attitude must be maintained, with earnest desire, 
with patient hope, with unfaltering faith. Archbishop 
Leighton beautifully remarks, "Never was any one who 
waited for Him, miserable with disappointment. Who- 
soever thou art that dost indeed desire Him, and desirest 
to wait for Him, surely thou resolvest to do it in His 
ways, wherein He is to be found, and wilt not willingly 
depart from these; that were foolishly to disappoint thy- 
self, and not to be true to thine own end. Therefore 
look to that; do not keep company with any sin. It 
may surprise thee sometimes as an enemy, but let it not 
lodge with thee as a friend. 

"And mind this other thing, prescribe nothing to God. 
If thou hast begun to wait, faint not, give not up, wait 
on still. It were good reason, were it but upon little 
hope at length to find Him; but since it is upon the 
unfailing assurance, that in the end thou shalt obtain, 
what folly were it, to lose all for want of waiting a little 
longer? " 

Thus it is that God waits for us, and we wait for Him. 
He waits for the fit times and seasons of His own ap- 
pointment, that He may be gracious; and we wait pa- 
tiently upon Him in the means and ordinances of grace, 



208 



WAITING FOR JESUS. 



tarrying the Lord's leisure, until He bring it to pass. 
Both these ideas are thus finely brought out by Isaiah: 
" Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious 
unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may 
have mercy upon you; for the Lord is a God of judg- 
ment; blessed are all they that wait for Him." 

AVe must wait for Jesus at such times as He may ap- 
point, and one of these special times is the Lord's Day. 
Though to Him all time is holy, all days sacred, yet 
well might He select the day which commemorates His 
greatest triumph, as the day to make His most gracious 
visitations. It was on two successive first days of the 
week that He made His marked appearances after His 
resurrection to His disciples. It was on "the first day 
of the week" that He was specially present with His 
apostles, on the memorable Pentecostal season. It was 
on "the first day of the week" that He was pleased . to 
meet John in Patmos, and unfold to him those wonder- 
ful revelations of things that should be hereafter. And 
it will doubtless be found in the calendar of heaven, that 
more souls have been born on the Lord's Day than on 
all other days together. He has set apart this time for 
the special purpose of meeting with the waiting soul • 
and no such soul can be in such an attitude, on this Hi 
day, and fail to meet and rejoice in the Lord of h" 
salvation. 

But we must wait for Jesus in the spirit which H 
requires. St. John says of himself, in the opening vi 
ions of Eevelation, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord' 
Day"; and, while thus spiritually prepared, the glorified 
Jesus met him, and communed with him about thing 
present and things to come, things on earth and i 
heaven. We can only be truly waiting for Christ whe 



WAITING FOR JESUS. 



209 



we cherish the spirit of Christ; for, says the apostle, "If 
any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of 
His." Hence there must be a spiritual preparedness of 
mind and heart, in order rightly to appreciate the visi- 
tation of Jesus and to enjoy His presence. Every feel- 
ing, emotion, and desire which we find within us con- 
trary to the genius of the gospel — every lust and passion 
and envious thought which we permit to find lodgment 
and activity in our hearts — must be done away; for no 
soul can desire Jesus, who does not desire to be like 
J esus ; no one can wish to be with Christ, who seeks not 
to be clothed with the spirit of Christ. To say, then, 
that we are waiting for Him, and at the same time be 
making no preparation to receive Him, — to presume to 
hope that He will meet us in our sins, and abide with us 
along with our unbridled lusts and unmortified desires ; 
is to grossly insult the Saviour, and to treat Him, as we 
would not treat the most common friend on earth. 

And what is this spirit of Christ in which we are 
required to meet Him ? We gather its character from 
various passages of Scripture. It is that spirit which 
makes us, in a finite degree, Christ-like. Christ-like in 
our hearts, full of love, tenderness, compassion. Christ- 
like in our minds, bringing every thought into captiv- 
ity to the spirit of holiness. Christ-like in our lives, by 
spending them in the service of God for the salvation 
of men. When we wait for Christ in the spirit of Christ, 
we are sure to be fully prepared to meet Him and to 
profit by the rich communications of His grace ; and un- 
der no other condition can we be fitted to receive or 
enjoy the Saviour. 

In order to a full enjoyment of Christ, there must be 
not only a waiting for him but also a glad receiving of 



210 



WAITING FOR JESUS. 



Him. Wherever there is this waiting for Christ in the 
way, at the times, and in the method of His own ap- 
pointment, there will He be u gladly received"; and 
where He is received into the heart, salvation is sure: 
for, says St. John, "To as many as received Him, to 
them gave He power to become the sons of God, even 
to them that believe on His name." 

It is at the door of the heart that Christ knocks, and 
it is into the heart that He seeks an entrance. He will 
not be saved who allows Christ to stand outside the door, 
however close He may get to that door. Christ must 
u be formed in us the hope of glory"; but before He can 
be formed in us, He must enter into us. Our heart's 
door must be opened by the Holy Ghost, and, taught by 
Him, we must send out the welcome, u Come in, thou 
blessed of the Lord"; for thus only can the heart be 
made a living temple, "an habitation of God in the 
spirit." 

The coming in of Christ into the heart, always begets 
gladness in that heart. This spiritual gladness is an 
important element of Christian character because, like 
sunshine, it brightens all within and reflects its glow on 
all without. The soul seems to bound onward and up- 
ward with light and elastic step. It moves on singing 
as it goes for it is ever joying in the Lord, and His 
praise is ever in its mouth. Too often Christians are 
gloomy and sad. Instead of looking as if they had 
gladly received the Lord, they appear as if they were 
sulkily enduring His unwelcome presence. They thus 
disfigure religion — make it almost repulsive — and drive 
men from Christ rather than draw them to Him. 

Where Christ, however, is gladly received, there will 
be repeated the experience of the disciples at Emmaus, 



WAITING FOR JESUS. 



211 



"Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with 
us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures." 

Nehemiah truly says, "The joy of the Lord is your 
strength." It is a real moral force in the soul. It is 
spiritual nerve-power, sending its electric thrills through 
all our spiritual being and animating us to do and dare 
great things for Christ and His Church. So they who 
gladly receive Christ will most gladly work for Christ 
and suffer for Christ; and they experience even here, 
and amidst all the disturbing sorrows and trials of their 
mortal life, the foretaste of the divine promise, " In thy 
presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand there 
are pleasures for evermore." 

But there are those who are conscious to themselves 
that they are not waiting for Christ, and have not glad- 
ly received Him. They have no true desire of heart to 
see Jesus, nor will they open to Him their heart, though 
He has long knocked at its door. They would not, per- 
haps, like the men of Nazareth, " thrust Him out of the 
synagogue " ; nor like the citizens of Gadara, pray Him 
"to depart out of their coasts"; nor like the Jews at 
Jerusalem, "take up stones to stone Him"; but there is 
a passive indifference to Him, which does not conde- 
scend to acknowledge His claims ; and a deliberate set- 
ting aside of religion, as incompatible with the superior 
demands of earthly friends, scenes, and events. There 
is a virtual saying, "We will not have this man to reign 
over us." There is no going forth to meet and welcome 
Him, no heart- waiting for His presence, no glad reception 
of His truth, His love, His grace, His person ; and conse- 
quently such persons are still enemies to Christ, and 
must inevitably receive the doom which such conduct 
demands. " He that is not with me," says our Lord, " is 



212 



WAITING FOR JESUS. 



against me." He that waits not for Christ, has no part 
with Christ. He that does not gladly receive Him, wil- 
fully rejects Him; and the doom of such the Saviour has 
pronounced in these memorable words, " Whosoever 
shall be ashamed of me, and of my word, of him shall 
the Son of man be ashamed before His Father and His 
holy angels;" " and those mine enemies, which would 
not that I should reign over them, bring them hither 
and slay them before me." 

It is a blessed state to be in, to be waiting for Jesus 
— to have the soul in that position of expectancy, that 
looks and longs for His appearing. He never withdraws 
Himself very far from the believer — is always within 
call ; and though, to test our faith, He sometimes appears 
not to heed our cry, yet it enters into His ear, reaches 
His heart, and draws out the deep utterances of divine 
affection. Our whole being is thrilled by the voice of 
our Beloved. He speaks, "Kise up, my love, my fair 
one, and come away." Our waiting hour is repaid by 
the gracious appearing of His majesty; and, like one 
glorious in holiness, He brings us "to His banqueting 
house, and His banner over us is love." This is the re- 
ward which they who wait in hope and faith and love 
shall have on earth; but it is only a foretaste of the 
pleasures which shall be theirs, when the waiting hour 
of ; life is over, and He whom we waited for, and so glad- 
ly received on earth; shall wait to welcome us, when, 
having crossed the turbulent sea of life, we enter the 
haven of eternal rest, and step ashore in heaven. 



XVIII. 



CAN WE NOW LEAN ON JESUS' BOSOM? 

4 'Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom 
Jesus loved. " — John xiii. 23. 

The Evangelists rarely speak of themselves by name. 
When recording events in which they were actors, they 
used some descriptive epithet or allusion, sufficiently 
clear to indicate who was meant, without so openly 
naming themselves as to be chargeable with egotism. 
St. John especially, except when others as well as him- 
self are concerned, never mentions his own name ; but 
the veil which he throws over himself by his periphras- 
tic sentences is so gauze-like, that, while it enhances 
our ideas of his modesty, it does not so conceal him, as 
to prevent our recognizing his features and calling him 
by name. 

The apostle had been describing the scene which 
took place at the Last Supper, consequent on the dec- 
laration of our Lord, " One of you shall betray me." 
Startled, anxious, distrustful, at such unexpected words, 
the amazed disciples eagerly put to their Lord the ques- 
tion, " Is it I? Is it I?" To ascertain more definitely 
who it was, Peter beckoned to the disciple nearest to Je- 
sus, and who was then leaning on His bosom, to inquire 
" Who it should be of whom He spake?" This he did, 
and received such a reply, as designated the betrayer, 



214 



CAN WE NOW LEAN ON JESUS' BOSOM? 



and satisfied their minds. It is in the description of 
this momentary excitement, that the text occurs. Inter- 
nal evidence, as well as universal consent, point to 
John as the one to whom these words refer, who, from 
this circumstance, is generally called "the Beloved 
Disciple." 

The table usages at the East were widely different 
from our own. The usual form of the table was that 
of three sides of a square, surrounded by couches, upon 
which the person reclined on his left arm, his feet being 
stretched toward the wall, and his right hand being free 
to reach toward the table. In such a recumbent posture 
as this, it would be very easy for one by gently relaxing 
his left arm, to lean back upon the bosom of the one next 
to him, as was often done in token of intimacy and af- 
fection. St. John, occupying a place next to Jesus, was 
thus enabled to lean upon His breast ; and as it was, per- 
haps, a privileged place, accorded to him, it may be for 
his gentler and more loving nature, he avails himself of 
the gracious permission to designate himself as the one 
" leaning on Jesus' bosom," and, as thus privileged, he 
also styled himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved"; for 
he only, so far as we know, of all the disciples, ever laid 
his head on Jesus' breast. It was surely a peculiar honor, 
one well worthy of note and transmission from age to 
age : nor is there, in its being recorded, any undue prais- 
ing of himself ; for that he pre-eminently loved the Sa- 
viour, and was pre-eminently loved by Him, is evident 
from the fact that John alone, of all the disciples, stood 
by His cross, and to his loving care Jesus committed the 
charge of His weeping mother. Happy disciple! thus 
to lean upon the bosom of " God manifest in the flesh"; 
thus to feel beneath his head, the beatings of that divine 



CAN WE NOW LEAN ON JESUS' BOSOM? 



215 



heart, which compassed the world in its infinite love! 
We should have lacked one touching evidence of the 
Saviour s gracious condescension to man, and one lovely 
lineament in the features of St. John himself, had this 
little incident been left out. It is full of meaning in 
itself, as an act of sacred friendship. It is suggestive 
of precious thoughts, as illustrative of the intimacy 
which Jesus permits. It reveals the human loveliness 
of Christ in a clear light, and draws His disciples to Him 
with a winning sympathy which would never have been 
felt, had not St. John told us, "Now there was leaning 
on His bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved." 

Our Lord no more walks in our midst, or reclines with 
us at the table. On His human form the eye can not 
gaze, nor the head rest ; but are we then excluded from 
His bosom ? is there no such thing as leaning now on Je- 
sus' breast ? "Was it reserved for St. John alone to press 
that beating heart ? and can no one else pillow his head 
upon that sacred bosom ? We can not, indeed, in bodi- 
ly form, approach His body ; but we are privileged with 
being brought into living contact with the throbbing 
heart of Christ, so that the pulses of His love are made 
to circulate in the channels of our own affections, and 
the warmth of His soul imparts a glowing vitality to 
ours! 

What is it, then, at this day, to lean on Jesus' bosom ? 
We speak of the breast of man, as being filled with noble 
feelings; or of man, as cherishing in his breast, senti- 
ments of hate and revenge. We speak of a generous 
bosom, palpitating with benevolence; or an unfeeling 
bosom, shut up and indurated in its emotions. We 
use this language, because the heart has its seat in the 
breast; and as that, in the physical system, is the centre 



216 CAN WE NOW LEAN ON JESUS' BOSOM? 



of animal life, the ever-welling up and distributing foun- 
tain of the vital currents, so, by a figure of speech, when 
we would speak of the moral centre of man, the well- 
spring of moral emotions, we use the term heart, and 
say, his heart is right or wrong, his heart is generous or 
closed, his heart is renewed or unsanctified ; hence, to 
lean upon the breast, the outer casement of the heart, 
is equivalent to saying, that the person leans upon the 
love, and sympathy, of that individual. 

To lean upon Jesus' bosom, then, is to bring our 
hearts into living, feeling contact with the heart of 
Christ. His love emanates from His heart, and hence 
he who rests upon His love rests upon His breast. The 
feeling of confidence in human affection is one of the 
most delicious emotions of which we are capable. To 
know that one heart truly, fondly, unfalteringly loves 
us ; to know that we can rest upon that love in the as- 
sured conviction that it will never decrease, never wa- 
ver, but rather grow and strengthen, is a knowledge 
of priceless value to the sensitive and the refined. In 
leaning upon the heart of Jesus, the Christian can have 
this confidence and certainty, to a degree impossible 
among men. His heart is an organ of infinite love; 
and the nearer we are brought in contact with it, the 
more are we ravished by its love, and buoyed up and 
strengthened by its more than reciprocated affection. 

But we need sympathy, as well as love from Christ; 
and in leaning upon Jesus' bosom, we lean upon the 
place whence His sympathies flow. There are daily 
trials, ever recurring temptations, fretting cares, dis- 
tressing infirmities, in which we seek not only succor 
but sympathy. It is comforting to know, if you are in 
trouble or affliction, that you are sympathized with; 



CAN WE NOW LEAN ON JESUS' BOSOM? 



217 



and a kind look, a soothing word, a consoling sentence, 
a dropping tear, will do much towards invigorating the 
soul, and bringing back hope and peace. 

Our blessed Saviour is eminently sympathetic. None 
ever felt so deeply for the sorrows and sufferings of the 
world. None ever understood so thoroughly the needs 
and straits of humanity. None ever knew so profoundly 
the springs of human thought and action. He felt for 
sickness and affliction wherever seen. He wept at the 
grave of Lazarus, and over the devoted city. He was 
filled with compassion for the widow of Nain, for the 
Syro-Phoenician mother, and for the hungry multitudes 
deprived of bread. 

Every day drew largely upon His sympathies, yet they 
were as exhaustless as His divinity; and hence, every 
day He poured them forth freely upon the children of 
want and sorrow. Nor is the Saviour less sympathizing 
now that He has ascended into heaven. He is still 
"touched with the feeling of our infirmities," and still 
ministers to us His succor and compassion. The Chris- 
tian needs and must have this divine sympathy. He 
can not bear alone the temptations of His own heart, 
the risings up of indwelling sin, or the assaults of out- 
ward spiritual foes. There are seasons of deep depres- 
sion, of trembling anxiety, lest, after all, He is deceived ; 
of hesitation as to what is duty; of exhausting conflict 
with the tempter; when the soul craves sympathy with 
our great High Priest, and when, failing to get it, it 
faints beneath its load. 

But if we lean on Jesus' bosom, we shall always have 
His sympathies. We shall feel His compassion and re- 
joice in His succor, just in proportion as we keep near 
the fountain whence they rise and run. 



218 



CAN WE NOW LEAN ON JESUS' BOSOM? 



There is something else, however, that we need be- 
side the love of Christ, and the sympathy of Christ. It 
is an intelligent understanding of the doctrine of Christ. 
And this we can get only as we more trustingly lean 
upon His heart, for He Himself has declared, "Out of 
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." 

There is such a thing as a mere speculative, theoreti- 
cal knowledge of gospel truth, which may rest in the 
intellect, and never reach down and take hold of the 
heart. A man may be a learned theologian without 
leaning upon Jesus' bosom; but no one can savingly 
understand divine truth who does not bring his head 
in contact with Jesus' heart. There is a great difference 
between an intellectual, and an experimental, knowl- 
edge of Bible doctrines. The leading truths of Eevela- 
tion have been well defined, ably defended, unfalteringly 
held, by men who had no living faith in Jesus Christ. 
But he who wishes to get at the real meaning of the 
words of Jesus; who seeks to know Him as He has con- 
descended to reveal Himself in His many sayings ; will 
pillow his head upon His breast, that he may listen to 
the heart-conceived, and uttered words, as they come 
throbbing with love from the depths of infinite affec- 
tion. How different does the gospel appear when stu- 
died as a matter of theology or exegesis, when read 
with the clear but cold eye of intellect, and weighed in 
the world-poised balances of reason ; from what it does 
when perused in the confidingness of faith leaning on 
the Beloved, and feeling beneath our own souls every 
heaving of His breast, who spoke the words and made 
them the means of our salvation ! For this reason it is 
that the poor widow, the bed-ridden patient, the hum- 
ble laborer, often has a richer experimental knowledge 



CAN WE NOW LEAN ON JESUS' BOSOM? 



219 



of the truth as it is in Jesus; than the learned min- 
ister or the boasting professor. All real knowledge of 
Jesus must come from Christ's heart, and through our 
heart. Love, like another John the Baptist, must go 
before the face of truth and prepare its way. It is not 
knowing the truth, it is loving the truth, that will make 
us growing, cheerful, active Christians; and the closer 
we cling to the heart of the Saviour, the more will His 
love transfuse itself into our bosoms and call out ardent 
returns. 

There is yet one other and very thrilling point con- 
nected with this subject. It is, that to lean on Jesus' 
bosom, is to lean upon the place whence flowed His 
precious blood. It was from the spear-riven heart of 
Christ, that there gushed out blood and water; and in 
leaning upon Jesus' breast, therefore, we get close to the 
fountain opened for sin and all uncleanness. We read 
and hear a great deal about the blood of Christ. We 
come up to the house of the Lord to the communion of 
the body and blood of Christ ; we pray that we may be 
washed in that blood, and sing songs of praise to God 
that the crimson drops of salvation ever trickled from 
the head, and hands, and feet, and heart of the crucified 
Redeemer. Yet how little do we understand the words 
we use, or the thoughts we express ! We do not suffi- 
ciently consider whose blood this is — the blood of God 
manifest in the flesh ; for whom it was shed — the dar- 
ing enemies of this incarnate God; the result — produ- 
cing reconciliation with God, redemption for man, par- 
don, peace, and eternal life. If we dwelt more on these 
points, the nature of the blood, the cause of its shed- 
ding, and its resulting blessings; we should find our 
views of Christ vastly elevated, of ourselves much les- 



220 CAN WE NOW LEAN ON JESUS' BOSOM? 

sened, and of sin greatly augmented. We should re- 
joice more in the love of Jesus; cling to Him by a 
more tenacious faith, and bring forth more fully the 
fruits of righteousness and peace in the Holy Ghost. 

If we would feel the preciousness of Christ's blood, 
we must lean upon the heart whence it flowed, and 
there, upon the bosom of Jesus, learn the vastness of 
the love which gave it, the greatness of the sacrifice 
which it involved, and the unspeakable richness of the 
grace, present and future, of which it was the purchase- 
money. 

I have thus briefly answered the question, What is it 
to lean on J esus' bosom ? But words, however graphic, 
can convey but slight ideas of what the question really 
involves. It is something that each one must feel and 
enjoy for himself, before he can understand its nature 
and value. No description can supply the lack of ex- 
perience ; and, when the soul of the Christian once leans 
there, no description can declare his blessedness or ex- 
press his joy. 

The bosom of Christ is a privileged place. We read 
of only one who leaned there when He was on earth; 
but it is now accessible to all who love Him. It is a 
place sacred to love and to intimate fellowship, such as 
believers are privileged with, though, alas ! such as be- 
lievers too seldom enjoy. It is a place, too, of confi- 
dence and repose: doubts vanish, distrust ceases, when 
the Christian's head is pressed against the throbbing 
heart of his Saviour, and he reposes there in peace, 
watched over by the Saviour's eye and sheltered by the 
Saviour's arms. 

It is a privileged place in times of adversity. The 
world may treat us coldly, friends may withdraw from 



CAN WE NOW LEAN ON JESUS' BOSOM? 



221 



us, riches may depart, but, if we can lean on Jesus' 
bosom, we care not; for we know that there is no cold- 
ness in His look, no withdrawal of His love, no departing 
of His peace; and how harmless is every tempest of ad- 
versity that beats upon us! it only makes us cling 
closer to the bosom of J esus. 

It is a privileged place in seasons of sickness. When 
too languid for the active duties of religion, when shut 
out from the house of God, when debarred closet devo- 
tions, when pain and disease are doing their wasting 
work, how precious the privilege to lie quietly on Jesus' 
bosom, and find there a closet and a sanctuary — breathe 
out there our prayer and praise — rest there trustingly 
and peacefully, and feel willing that He on whom we 
lean, should do with us as may seem good in His sight! 

It is a privileged place in times of sorrow. We all 
know how great the relief we experience in affliction if 
we can pour our griefs into one faithful bosom, confident 
of sympathy and love. Christ permits all His followers 
thus to come unto Him. It is a small but very signi- 
ficant circumstance mentioned in the narrative of John 
the Baptist's death, that, after he was beheaded, "his 
disciples came and took up the body and buried it, and 
went and told Jesus." Went and told Jesus! This is 
what we should do in our afflictions, whensoever they 
oppress us. Do not brood over them in silence — do not 
morbidly magnify them — do not shut them out from the 
light and peace of the Bible — but go and, leaning on 
Jesus' bosom, tell Him your griefs, and He will stanch 
your bleeding heart, and give you "the oil of joy for 
mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of 
heaviness." 

Especially is it a privileged place to the believer in 



222 CAN WE NOW LEAN ON JESUS' BOSOM? 



death. What mean those words, "sleep in Jesus," but 
a tranquil breathing out of the soul on the bosom of 
Jesus, a giving up of the ghost, " leaning on the Be- 
loved?" It matters not where, or amid what circum- 
stances, or under what agonies the Christian dies; he 
can not die where Christ is not present to close his eyes, 
to fold him in His arms, to press him to His heart. It 
is the most desirable, the most honorable, and the most 
glorious of all deaths to die as a disciple, "leaning on 
Jesus' bosom." Then, only, does the believer triumph 
over death — then, only, is death robbed of his sting. 
This is dying in the Lord, and a voice from heaven has 
declared all such "blessed." 

Such is the gracious intimacy which Christ permits. 
Such the sweet approaches which we may enjoy. Yet, 
how few, even among His disciples, cherish that inti- 
macy or make those approaches ! But the failing is all 
our own ; it is from a lack of confidence in His love and 
faith in His promises — and from these we should seek to 
be delivered at once, if we desire peace and hope. Lose 
not this sweet privilege of leaning on Jesus' bosom; you 
need such a heart to rest upon, such a shelter, such a 
confidence in divine aid and sympathy; and it can be 
obtained only by thus bringing your soul into contact 
with the love-filled breast of the Kedeemer. 

Pressing are the invitations to come to Jesus ; solemn 
are the warnings against staying away. 

Precious are the privileges accorded to His disciples ; 
and those who so love Him as to lean upon His bosom 
with a heart-relying faith, here, shall dwell forever with 
Him in heaven, where they shall see His face and share 
His glory. 



XIX. 



THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878* 

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." 
St. John xii. 32. 

Most Eev. Fathers and Brethren Beloved — 

It is with unfeigned diffidence that I stand before 
you this morning. 

Deeply as I appreciate the honor of having been se- 
lected as your preacher, still more deeply am I burdened 
with a sense of the responsibility which rests upon me 
as your mouthpiece on this great occasion. Not that I 
am commissioned to speak your views, or declare what 
we have said or done, but I am your mouthpiece as 
guiding your thoughts in this closing hour, and sum- 
ming them up in words appropriate to the valedictory 
of this remarkable Conference. May the Holy Ghost so 
illumine my mind that I may think only those things 
which are right, and so touch my lips that I shall speak 
only that which shall be for the glory of the Triune 
God! 

I shall not attempt to review the doings of the Con- 
ference now brought to an end. Within this present 
month, and within the Library of Lambeth Palace, has 
been made a history, the record of which will constitute 

* This sermon was delivered in the Cathedral of St. Paul, London, 
England, July 27, 1878, at the close of the Conference of the Bishops of 
the Anglican Communion held at Lambeth Palace in July, 1878. 



224 



THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



one of the most illuminated chapters in the annals of 
the Holy Catholic Church. Never before have so many 
English-speaking bishops met together. Never before 
have all branches of the Anglican Communion been so 
fully represented in an ecclesiastical assembly, Such a 
gathering converges to itself the eyes of the thinking 
world, and such a gathering must radiate from itself a 
power for weal or woe that shall reach to far distant 
ages. The history of that Conference is made. The re- 
sult of that Conference will be fully known only when 
the record of eternity shall be revealed. We met as 
standard-bearers of the Cross of Christ. That fact has 
been the prominent one in all our deliberations, and 
we separate to go back to our dioceses, more impressed 
than ever that it is in and through an uplifted Christ — 
faithfully held up and fully displayed, that our work 
can be accomplished, and all men — men of all races, all 
climes, all countries — be drawn to the feet of the Cruci- 
fied and to the Church, which is His Body. In this 
precious truth we have found not only a bond of per- 
sonal union, but of real unity throughout the wide- 
spreading branches of our Holy Church. 

Our little diversities, personal and national, as to non- 
essentials ot faith and the accessories of worship, look 
very small before the great essentials in which we all 
agree. We feel that we all rest on the same corner and 
foundation stones laid in Zion, even Christ and his Apos- 
tles, and the eternal and distinctive verities of faith re- 
vealed in God's Holy Word. 

This sacred depositum intrusted to the Church as the 
keeper and witness of the faith once delivered to the 
saints, embodied in the creeds of Christendom, endorsed 
by the undisputed General Councils, and maintained 



THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



225 



and defended by the consensus of the undivided Church 
in the writings of the early Fathers, is the blessed herit- 
age of us all, and binds us together in the oneness and 
unity of a living organism, operating through diverse 
members and by diverse functions, yet all holding to 
the one Divine Head — nourished by the one Divine 
Blood, breathing the one Divine Breath of Life. 

Another fact, which has grown out of the more faith- 
ful lifting up of the Lord Jesus Christ, and which this 
Conference has brought prominently out, is the increase 
of spiritual life and work in all the branches of the 
Anglican Church. The reports of the bishops from 
every quarter testify to this pleasing fact. Not only is 
this increase seen in a more widely-spread and deeper- 
toned personal piety, but also in the gratifying increase 
of reverence for holy things and places, in the more 
life-inspiring renderings of our beautiful Liturgy, in the 
more frequent celebrations of the Holy Communion, and 
in the multifarious forms of Church work springing up 
in all our dioceses and missionary jurisdictions. 

It is further seen in the bringing into effective and 
judicious use agencies for the cultivation of personal 
holiness, and the better reaching of the sick and the 
poor, and for the wider extension of Church privileges, 
which have either never been used before, or which 
have long been disused, because abused to purposes of 
superstition and error. We feel, and I think rightly, 
that whatever has been done or used in other ages, or 
by other communions, which has been productive of 
good, even though tainted with the evils of the age, or 
the communion using them, ought not on that account 
to be set aside; but rather should be reclaimed from 
wrong-doing, and by wise and authoritative adaptation 
15 



226 THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



be made to serve the right and the true in faith and 
worship. Hence implements of spiritual tillage, hith- 
erto neglected or suspected, have been remodelled and 
rightly utilized. 

Methods of Church work, which were once looked 
upon with distrust, have been prudently adjusted to our 
own needs and times. Our blessed Lord gave to His 
Church that same power of self-adjustment which in a 
higher and holier way He showed in His own conduct 
when on earth. He gave it marvellous flexibility of 
circumference, combined with central fixedness and un- 
changeableness — flexibility, so as to conform to all the 
outlines of human needs, just as He has made the great 
ocean to flow as readily into the little cove beside the 
fisherman's hut as into the magnificent bays which har- 
bor the navies of the world; and fixedness, so that the 
substantial body of truth shall never be changed, just as 
He holds the same great ocean in the hollow of His 
hand. The multiplied agencies which the Church has 
set in motion in the last half-century illustrate what I 
mean as to adjustment of the Church to the demands of 
modern society. 

Specially I may mention the introduction of lay- 
helpers, both men and women, into the active service 
of the Church. The fact proves that the Church is re- 
viving from her languid state, when it was too much the 
fashion to regard the clergy as the Church, and rather 
to frown upon lay effort as trenching upon clerical pre- 
rogative. It was this spirit which lost to the Church of 
England the fruit of that great uprising of zeal under 
the Wesleys and Whitfield, which, had it been recog- 
nized and utilized, and taught to work in Churchly chan- 
nels, as it now would be, would have rooted the Church 



THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 227 



of England tenfold more in the hearts of the toiling 
classes, and kept them from drifting away into frag- 
mentary divisions; would have welded together social 
elements which would admirably supplement each other ; 
and would have made the disestablishment and dena- 
tionalization of the Church of England utterly impossible. 

The introduction of the lay element into the councils 
of the Church, whether diocesan or convocational, is a 
grave question, because, in some cases, encumbered with 
serious difficulties. Therefore each national Church must 
deal with it as a national question, and settle it as shall 
best subserve its national interests. But the patent fact 
is, that the bringing in of the laity as a constituent part 
of the various working assemblies of the Church has in 
the United States and in many of the colonial provinces 
and dioceses been of the highest value to the cause of 
our holy faith. Intrust the laity with responsibility, 
and you secure their confidence. Make them a part 
of your deliberative councils, and they will educate 
themselves to discharge aright the duties of their posi- 
tion. Let them realize that the Church leans upon their 
wisdom as well as upon their purse, and they will show 
that strong common sense, knowledge, and discretion 
which shall make them as powerful allies in Church 
legislation as they now are in Church work. 

It is true that with this increase of vitality has been 
an increase of abnormal life, running out into excesses, 
both in doctrine and in ritual. In a Church made up of 
imperfect beings, with all possible tastes, temperaments, 
and idiosyncrasies, such evils can not well be avoided. 
Our blessed Lord told us in His parables that this would 
be the case. St. Paul distinctly declared to the Corin- 
thians that " there must be also heresies among you, that 



228 THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



they which are approved may be made manifest among 
you," thus not merely recognizing in his day, and in 
Apostolic Churches, the existence of this Church life 
running out into wrong channels of thought and action, 
but giving as a reason for its permissive existence, that 
the Lord used these heresies and these sects as a means 
of testing and manifesting the true — making the true 
more clearly true by placing alongside of it its simulat- 
ing error. 

Nor has the Church of Christ ever been free from 
these errors, and the words of our Lord in the parable 
of the tares and wheat, u Let both grow together until 
the harvest," and then saying that that harvest was the 
end of the world, indicates with certainty that these 
heresies, and this schismatic spirit, will continue the 
earthly lifetime of the Church. Lamentable indeed are 
these displays, splitting off from the Church into open 
schism, on the one hand, or raising up factions, turbulent 
and menacing, within the bounds of the Church-, on the 
other. 

These evils can only be partially held in check or cor- 
rected by any legal or technical decisions of civil or ec- 
clesiastical courts, for in some instances they have fos- 
tered more scandals than they have allayed. The real 
remedy lies in another direction. It is to draw men to 
a common centre by preaching a great central and uni- 
fying truth. That great central truth is that which is 
both centred and sphered in an uplifted Christ. When 
men are drawn to His person, His service, and His sal- 
vation, you have a basis for that real unity which alone 
meets the conditions of our Lord's intercessory prayer — 
"That they all may be one, as Thou Father art in me, 
and I in Thee." Not organically one, but one in the 



THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 229 



harmony of an interior life derived from a common 
source, sustained by a common faith, and having a com- 
mon end and aim. 

When the pure strength of evangelical truth welling 
up in life-giving freshness in the word of God shall flow 
more freely through the channels of apostolic order and 
sacramental ordinances; when this evangelical spirit, 
to which the Church of England owed its revival of 
life and activity in the last century, shall avail itself 
more of churchly agencies, and address itself more to 
working along Church lines, with the same zeal with 
which it has so well adressed itself to the maintenance 
and defence of doctrine, and shall thus make the clergy 
and the parishes alive with new-born zeal and love, 
showing by their own example that they are as earnest, 
as sincere, as self-sacrificing, as sound in the faith and 
as loyal to the Church as those whom they condemn — 
then will the spirit of lawlessness, and erroneous and 
strange doctrine, and the sickly imitations of a foreign 
communion be met and answered by a purer faith, a 
more Christ-like zeal, a more obedient reverence to the 
powers that be as ordained of God, and a higher and 
holier aim — namely, the advancement, not of self nor of 
party, but the honor and glory of the uplifted Christ. 

Looking in another direction, we find the Church 
confronted by critical scepticism and scientific doubt, 
which aim to break down the bulwarks of her faith and 
raze her walls of salvation to the ground. But while 
we survey this frowning evil, let us not be unduly 
alarmed, or make too hasty concessions, but be vigilant 
and wise in meeting it on broad and sound grounds. 
Holding to the Bible as our sole rule of faith and prac- 
tice, we must maintain the supremacy of the Bible by 



230 THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



placing it in its right position ; and that is, that it is a 
perfectly completed book. The Bible of to-day is the 
Bible of all the centuries of the Christian era, and will 
be of all the centuries to come. As it came from Him, 
it can neither be added to nor taken from without incur- 
ring the anathema of its Author. But the science which 
opposes this Bible is but the science of to-day. It was 
not the science of the last century ; it will not be of the 
century to come. These sciences, of whatever name, 
are variable and uncertain. Not one is on a fixed and 
immovable basis. Not one that may not be altered, or 
set aside by some new discovery, or by some new gen- 
eralization. It will be time enough to say whether 
these sciences and the Bible do agree when the per- 
fected circle of science shall be placed on the perfected 
circle of the Holy Scriptures. Then only can we rightly 
measure each, and when that time comes it will be found 
that the circumference of science and the circumference 
of revelation have one and the same periphery, because 
they have one and the same Divine Centre, the same 
one living and true God. In the apostle's day there 
were " oppositions of science falsely so-called." In every 
age since then the same assaults have been renewed, 
but the Bible has calmly held on its way. It waits pa- 
tiently for conformation as the ages roll on, and each 
advance of true science does bring it more into accord 
with revelation. What the clergy have to do is not to 
attempt to put on Saul's armor and go forth to fight 
what they would call a Philistine science with some- 
thing that they have not proved and can not wield, but 
to take the smooth stones out of the brook of Scripture, 
and in the name of the Uplifted One so hurl them that 
even giant defiers of the Israel of God shall fall before 



THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



231 



the simple truth, slung by the humblest shepherd of the 
flock. This preaching is now, as in Paul's day, to the 
Jew a stumbling-block, and to the Greek foolishness, but 
it is still what it was then, and what it ever will be, 
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. When 
the apostles preached this uplifted Christ, they did it 
not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, lest the 
Cross of Christ should be made of none effect, but with 
that simple plainness of men fully imbued with the truth 
which they heralded, and telling it out in the fulness 
and directness of that earnestness which all will feel 
who realize that they are bought with a price, even 
the precious blood of the uplifted Jesus. 

Looking in still another direction, we find the Church 
in the midst of social evils which threaten alike the well- 
being of the Church and of the State. Can the Church 
deal with these manifold economical questions which at 
times so seriously agitate the whole framework of hu- 
man society ? Yes. The uplifting of Christ will do it. 
The most important factor in the world's history was the 
coming down into it of Christ our Lord. His incarna- 
tion is the axle on which turn all the wheels of human 
life. Any science of sociology which leaves Him out as 
its central and controlling power is like a science of the 
solar system without the sun, erroneous at its centre and 
erroneous at its circumference. It is the presence of 
Christ in the world that has given birth to all the philan- 
thropies of the world — is banishing its most crying evils 
and bringing in all that is refining and elevating in mind 
and heart and life. This being so, and no student of 
history can truly deny it, it follows that all that is needed 
to meet and remove the social evils of our time is the 
clear, true, and forceful setting forth of Christ as the 



232 



THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



Light and Life of men. For just in proportion as they 
bask in His light and breathe the breath of His life wil 
they become Christ-like in mind and heart, and the prev- 
alence of the mind of Christ and the love of Christ will 
change the moral and social aspect of the world. 

Finally, God has set before the Church of this age an 
open door into the regions beyond and bidden her go in 
and possess the land. Never, it may truly be said, has 
the Church been so thoroughly equipped as now for mis- 
sionary work. Geographical exploration and commercial 
adventure have opened up to us long unknown and al- 
most mythical regions. Ethnology and philology have 
brought the varying languages and races of men into 
better classification. Technical art and science have put 
into our hands implements and skill for reforming and 
enlarging all the industrial pursuits of men. Thus these 
auxiliary forces become in the progress of time almost 
apo sties of Christianity. 

A higher and truer education in heathen lands must 
result in breaking down the old errors based on ig- 
norance and superstition. Science is already at work 
through manifold ways, undermining and sapping the 
Oriental religions — Buddhism, Brahminism, Confucian- 
ism, Lamaism — and preparing the way for their down- 
fall. It has not been until within a few years that we 
have really understood the doctrines, usages, and inner 
power of the dominating religions of Asia. We have 
known their general features, but have mostly grouped 
them all together in one idolatrous mass of hopeless 
superstition and cruel orgies, and as such have levelled 
our theological artillery relentlessly against them. Xow, 
however, through the labors of men who seem to have 
been specially raised up for the purpose, the eight great 



THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



233 



religions of the world, into which Max Midler reduces 
the many schemes of human worship, have been studied 
and analyzed, and their sacred books carefully trans- 
lated, annotated, and compared with our own, so that 
almost a new science — the science of comparative relig- 
ion — has been created by the diligent and painstaking 
men who have made careful surveys of these Oriental 
religions, and enabled us to weigh, measure, and exam- 
ine systems of belief which hold more than one half the 
human race in their moulding power. Thus Christian- 
ity is fast acquiring all those outside forces necessary to 
give to it a world-wide equipment for its world-wide 
conquest. And when the evangelistic forces of the 
Church shall go forth in their full power, it will be with 
a momentum hitherto unknown, enabling her to do in a 
day the work of a year, and in a year the work of cen- 
turies, until, through these vastly-augmented agencies, 
blessed and utilized by the Holy Ghost, it shall be liter- 
ally true as the prophet has declared, "a nation shall be 
born in a day." 

Brethren, beloved, this is the great work which is in- 
trusted to us in an especial manner, to proclaim in all 
the quarters of the world where our lot is cast an up- 
lifted Jesus. We are to lift Him up by exalting the 
Divine Scripture, in which He is enshrined; by exalting 
the sacrament which shows forth this uplifting until He 
come; by exalting the ministry appointed by Christ 
Himself to be His heralds and teachers; by exalting the 
Church, which is His mystical Body, — exalting all these 
things, not by exalting them above Him, of whom and 
to whom they all testify; but because they are all 
means and aids for getting a better, clearer, and more 
life-giving view of the uplifted Jesus. 



234 THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



All attempts to put any thing between the soul of the 
sinner and the uplifted Christ, or to raise any thing to 
the same level with Him, is derogatory to His honor 
and contrary to His word. To what purpose would the 
bitten Israelite have been told to look at the serpent of 
brass lifted up by Moses in the wilderness if any thing 
had been placed by Moses or the elders of Israel be- 
tween the eyes of the sufferer and the object to which 
he was directed to look? Or if alongside of that ser- 
pent of brass had been placed other objects to which 
equal efficacy was attributed and thus confused his 
mind and deflected his faith ? 

This lifting up of Christ in all the aspects of His 
offices as Prophet, Priest, and King can be done by us 
only as we are taught by the Holy Ghost, for it is His 
office to take of the things of Christ and to show them 
unto men. Dear brethren, if there is one thought more 
than another which presses upon me at this time, in ref- 
erence especially to the work committed to us as bishops 
in the Church of God, it is that we need a fresh baptism 
of the Holy Spirit and fresh outpouring into our hearts 
of the love-power of the uplifted Jesus. If even apos- 
tles, the three years' daily companions of our blessed 
Lord when He dwelt among men, had no power to 
preach the Cross of Christ until the Holy Spirit came 
upon them, surely we need to be sprinkled from on high, 
that Pentecostal grace may not merely light upon our 
heads in tongue-like flames, but that, like the precious 
ointment upon the head of Aaron that went down to 
the skirts of his garments, the unction that the Holy 
Spirit only can bestow may flow over our whole being, 
sanctifying our lives, enlightening our minds, giving 
grace to our lips, and wisdom to our acts, and power to 



THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



235 



our administration, so that it may be said of each of us 
as of the first martyr, St. Stephen, " He was a man full 
of faith and of the Holy Ghost." 

Our ministry of the word and our office as bishops 
can only be duly and wisely discharged in and through 
the power and guidance of the Holy Ghost. Let us 
never forget that this is the source of all ministerial 
strength and grace and influence. Our constant and 
wrestling prayer should be that we may daily increase 
in that Holy Spirit more and more until we come unto 
His everlasting kingdom. 

Let us also, dear brethren, endeavor to induce the 
clergy to be more diligent and distinct in setting forth 
this uplifted Christ as the great sunlike truth of our sal- 
vation. The real remedy for the troubles within our 
own Church is not by repressive, or by restrictive, or by 
punitive legislation; is not by courts of law, civil or 
ecclesiastical; is not by bandying criminous and con- 
temptuous words, and organizing parties in battle array 
under standards and principles foreign to the spirit of 
the gospels, but it is a more faithful setting forth of 
Christ. 

But I must stop, though many and weighty topics rise 
in my mind, created by the occasion. 

The day has arrived when this assembly of Anglican 
bishops will separate. But before we separate, our hearts 
are to be reknit together by participation in that blessed 
Sacrament which, while it binds each to each, binds all 
as one to the heart of our common Lord. From that al- 
tar we shall go away northward to the Arctic Circle, ' 
southward to Australia, eastward to China, westward to 
the United States, never to meet together as a body here 
below. Of the seventy-six bishops gathered at the last 



236 THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



Lambeth Conference in 1867, thirty are dead. Death 
has reaped out of that assembly a rich harvest, and 
garnered up some of the wisest, the noblest, the holiest 
men, who ever bore the burden of the Episcopate. They 
rest together in the Paradise of God. 

This thought can not but give a tone of solemnity to 
this sacred hour ; yet along with this undertone of sor- 
row rises up our souls' Te Deum that we have been per- 
mitted to meet as brethren, to confer so long and so 
lovingly together, and to part with that profound re- 
spect and affection which intercourse has engendered 
and which love has cemented. 

Speaking as an American bishop, and in behalf of 
American bishops, I feel warranted in saying that we 
desire thus publicly to acknowledge the manifold cour- 
tesies and civilities which have been so markedly be- 
stowed upon us — that we appreciate and shall ever re- 
member the unwearied kindness and loving words of our 
brethren of the English bench, and of all others who 
made up this Conference. 

We have learned here lessons of wisdom and zea] 
which will influence all our future. We go back richer 
than we came, for we return with the wealth of new 
friendships, new plans of usefulness, new aspirations 
after higher results, and the treasured memories of 
Church life and home life into which, as into a gar- 
den of spices, we have been so lovingly invited. Our 
admiration of the Church of England has been greatly 
increased. As Ave have walked around its Avails, gray 
Avith antiquity, and marked Avell its bulwarks, scarred, 
but not weakened, by the conflicts of the Christian cen- 
turies; as we have associated with those who bear Epis- 
copal rule in this Zion, and with the band of learned 



THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 237 



and self-sacrificing clergy who work therein, and with 
the intelligent and zealous and liberal laity that form 
the noble body of the faithful — as we have surveyed all 
these we may have seen here and there things that are 
strange to us, points that we should have altered, de- 
fects, as we might term them, that needed correction, 
the filling up of some crevice here, and the stripping off 
of some of the old ivy there ; but after all we should be 
forced to exclaim, " Beautiful for situation, the joy of the 
whole earth is this city of our God : Her foundations are 
on the everlasting hills. The Lord is in the midst of 
her; she shall not be moved. God shall help her, and 
that right early." As I behold the grand spectacle which 
the Anglican Church now presents — bristling with its 
multiplied agencies, and vigorous with re-enkindled life 
and earnestness, and contrast it with the impotence of 
its assailers and the envy of its rivals, I recall the mag- 
nificent vision of Milton, in which he describes the ris- 
ing power and glory of the commonwealth ; and substi- 
tuting the word "Church" for the word "nation," I seem 
to find in it a description of the present aspect of the 
spiritual commonwealth of dear old England. "Me- 
thinks," says the blind bard, " I see, in my mind, a no- 
ble and puissant Church, rousing herself like a strong 
man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks ; me- 
thinks I see her as an eagle, renewing her mighty 
youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full 
mid-day beam, purging and unsealing her long-abused 
sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance ; while 
the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with 
those also that love the twilight, flutter about amazed 
at what she means," and, I may add, confounded at her 
revived greatness. And so we say, with one mouth and 



238 THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE OF 1878. 



one heart, to the dear mother of us all, the Church of 
England, "Peace be within thy walls, and plenteous- 
ness within thy palaces. For my brethren and com- 
panions' sake, I will wish thee prosperity." 

The next time, dear brethren, that we meet together 
will be before the Great White Throne. Such a thought 
warns us that we must be watching, waiting, working, 
until the day of death comes ; and when that shall come, 
may we each, through faith in the atoning blood of the 
uplifted Jesus, pass in through the gate into the celes- 
tial city, and hear from the lips of Him who sitteth 
upon the throne, w Well done, good and faithful ser- 
vant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 



XX. 



THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 

"Exercise thyself unto godliness." — I Timothy iv. 7. 

In the text St. Paul sets before us a great aim — god- 
liness; the means by which it can be obtained, by exer- 
cise; and our personal duty to strive for it, by the ex- 
hortation, " Exercise thyself unto godliness." 

The man who is content to pass along with an aim- 
less existence ; or, only seeking daily supplies for daily 
needs, never looking hopefully into the future, and never 
seeking to excel ; does injustice to his higher nature, and 
grovels on a plane but little elevated above the demands 
of animal existence. No aim can so call out all the pow- 
ers of the human mind, and soul, as the aim after God- 
likeness. For what is godliness? Is it not God-like- 
ness ? a seeking to be like God ? Yet the question at 
once arises, How can man be like God ? God is infinite, 
man is finite. God filleth immensity, man stands on a 
few feet of a little world. God inhabiteth eternity, man 
has his breath in his nostrils, flourishing like the grass 
to-day, and to-morrow cut down and withered. 

Yet with all this disparity, the Bible exhorts us to set 
the Lord always before us, and to grow up into His like- 
ness. What may be termed the physical attributes of 
God, those which pertain to Him as Maker of all things, 



240 



THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 



Pailer over suns and systems, the Upholder of the uni- 
verse; these, man can neither comprehend nor copy, 
they are beyond his reach, and of them it is, that the 
Bible asks, " Who by searching can find out God?" It 
is God's moral qualities that we are to copy and emulate. 
These are revealed to us in His holy word, and though 
these, like the other attributes of God, are infinite, yet 
they are held up before us as patterns for us to admire 
and copy. 

All of God's moral attributes are comprised in His 
holiness. For holiness is moral perfection. As applied 
to God, it means that wholeness and completeness of 
the divine nature, from which nothing can be taken, to 
which nothing can be added. It includes, therefore, 
truth, love, mercy, goodness, and the like; because the 
absence of either would mar the wholeness and com- 
pleteness of the divine character. The presence of every 
virtue is needed to make complete the full circle of holi- 
ness, and they are all found in perfect fulness in God. 
When God then directs us in the Bible, "Be ye holy, 
for I am holy"; when we are exhorted to u follow holi- 
ness, without which no man shall see the Lord " ; when 
we are expressly told " God hath not called us unto un- 
cleanness, but unto holiness," we are to know that by 
these words God calls us unto godliness, or God-likeness, 
to be like God in all those moral qualities wherein we 
can walk in His ways, and copy His acts, and manifest 
His spirit. In the language of the Psalmist, it is setting 
the Lord always before us, just as the artist always sets 
his model before him ; and, day by day, with slow and 
careful process, works up his painting, or his statue, to 
the form and spirit of the great original. 

The man, then, who sets before himself the aim to be 



THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 241 



God-like, places above him the grandest aim that a cre- 
ated mind can reach after. He can never, indeed, at- 
tain unto it; yet, like the apostle Paul, "forgetting the 
things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
that are before," he presses toward the mark of his high 
calling. The higher the aim, the higher the aspiration. 
The purer the object of the heart's ambition, the purer 
becomes the heart that seeks it. Hence the importance 
of holy aims, of exercising one's self unto godliness. 

Godliness, then, as spoken of in the text, is only 
another name for holiness in action, i. e., Practical Piety, 
And, indeed, in one place in the Acts of the Apostles, 
the word is translated holiness. Godliness, then, or 
holiness, is that for which each human being should 
seek after, and strive for. In its purity, it outranks all 
human aims, for it alone is perfectly holy. In its ele- 
vating power over thought and heart, it surpasses all 
calls of earthly ambition. In the greatness of the bless- 
ings which result from seeking after it, it outstrips all 
that the w^orld can offer to its most unwearied votaries. 
In the duration of the blessedness which it imparts, it 
goes as far beyond what earth can offer, as eternity 
itself outstretches the limits of time, as measured by 
the dial-plates of men. 

But you may say this holiness, or godliness, is not 
attainable. It is not, to the full extent of the original 
which you are told to copy, because there are two ele- 
ments in God's holiness which can never exist in man 
so long as he tabernacles in the flesh — the complete ab- 
sence of sin, and the presence in full perfection of every 
virtue. Not so with man; he is ever a victim of sin, 
and never presents a complete assemblage of virtues. 
Some one or more are always w-anting, even in the 



242 



THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 



most perfect human characters. Some one or more are 
always out of proportion, or imperfectly developed, so 
that the circle is not complete in all its parts, nor har- 
monious in all its operations. And so man can never 
be like God. Yet there is a sense, and a most impor- 
tant one, in which we can be like God. Were it nat so, 
the exhortation of the text would be a mockery. That 
sense is, that taking the elements of God's moral charac- 
ter as we find them set forth in the Bible, — His truth, His 
love, His purity, His mercy, His goodness, His long-suf- 
fering, etc., — we are to strive to make them the guiding 
principles of our lives. The very contemplation of these 
attributes of God, makes sin appear exceeding sinful; 
because it throws the pure light of God's holiness into 
the sin-filled chambers of the heart, and reveals their 
horrors and their shame; while the attempt to imitate 
- these excellencies, strengthens every moral sense, gives 
tone and vigor to each putting forth of spiritual power, 
and makes the once weak and puny soul that sunk down 
before each trial, rise up and fight manfully in a strength 
not its own, and thus win victories where hitherto it 
had found only defeats. This gives a man a godly 
character, and eventually crowns him with godliness. 
This is what all can strive after, and secure. St. Paul 
exhorts Timothy to u follow after righteousness, godli- 
ness, faith, love, patience, meekness." St. Peter tells us 
to u give all diligence to add to our faith virtue; and to 
virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; and 
to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and 
to godliness, brotherly-kindness; and to brotherly-kind- 
ness, charity." In the Old Testament, by the mouth of 
the prophet God says of man, " I have formed him for 
my glory." In the New Testament, the apostle says, 



THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 



243 



" Glorify God, therefore, in your body, and in your spirit, 
which are God's." And Jesus Christ declares, " Herein 
is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." Spirit- 
ual fruit-bearing, the bringing forth the fruits of right- 
eousness, the fruits of the Spirit, the showing of love, 
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, good- 
ness, faith, temperance; it is in the bringing forth of 
these things that we manifest our godliness, and glorify 
God. These are aims which we can attain unto; heights 
indeed, but heights which can be scaled and reached by 
the eye that looks to J esus, by the foot that presses it- 
self into the cleft of the Rock, and by the hand of faith, 
that never lets go its grasp of the Crucified. 

The result of this godliness will show itself in a va- 
riety of ways. It will give a man the victory over 
himself. Self-conquest is the hardest of all conquests. 
This arises from the fact that we can never really know 
ourselves, because our hearts are "deceitful above all 
things." Hence the golden sentence, "Know thyself," 
inscribed in the temple at Delphi, was said to be the 
concrete of all human wisdom. No man can ever know 
himself as a moral being, so long as he measures himself 
by the standard of his own unenlightened conscience ; 
or compares himself with his fellow-men; or sets aside 
the law of God. But the man who exercises himself 
unto godliness, looks at his character in the light of 
God's word, measures himself by the standard of God's 
holy law, and seeing what are his defects, and learning 
how only they can be remedied, he seeks to the divine 
Agent, through whose power alone we can achieve any 
goodness, for that strength and grace, which enables 
him to master himself, and guide himself, so that he 
walks uprightly and surely in the way of the Lord. 



2U 



THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 



The cultivation of tins holiness will enable a man to 
overcome the world. Not in the sense of human con- 
querors, overcoming armies, nations, territory, and set- 
ting up thrones, and swaying sceptres, and lording it 
over the subjugated people. Such conquests, those so 
eagerly sought after, and bought with such toil, and 
courage, and sacrifice, and talent, are not what the 
godly man seeks after. His victories over the world 
are moral — over its snares, its allurements, its tempta- 
tions, its varied influences for evil which beset him on 
every side, and persist in their attacks with an untir- 
ing energy that knows no weariness or relaxation. He 
looks at the world in the light of God's countenance. 
He measures its honors by the measuring line of God's 
law. He weighs its riches in the balances of the sanc- 
tuary. He surveys it. not as seen in the garish lights 
and false reflectors which the Prince of this world sets 
up in order to attract and deceive; but in the calm, clear 
survey of a mind filled with high and holy thoughts, 
conscious of its future glory, and knowing that the 
world and all that is therein will soon be burned up 
in the final conflagration. Thus faith in Jesus Christ, 
the great root principle of all godliness, enables him to 
overcome the world. He finds in very deed the truth 
of St. Paul's words, that "godliness hath the promise of 
the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come." 

This godliness, so grand in itself, and in its results, 
can be secured, onlv by exercising ourselves to attain 
it. It does not come of itself, nor by retired medita- 
tion, nor by earnest prayer, nor by diligent reading of 
God's word. All these things are aids and adjuncts, but 
none of them, nor all combined, will give us godliness. 
It is the result of moral principles put into active exer- 



THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 



245 



cise ; and demands the full bent, and strenuous exertion 
of the mind. 

There is much meaning in the original word which 
the apostle here uses, and which is translated " exer- 
cise." The literal rendering is — Be gymnasts in godli- 
ness. It is a word from which the terms gymnastic, 
gymnasium, are drawn, derived from a Greek word 
which signifies " naked," because in those days the 
gymnasts usually exercised naked, or nearly so, in the 
athletic schools of Greece. According to Plato, gym- 
nastics, or the mere exercise and cultivation of muscu- 
lar power, constituted a third part of Grecian education. 
There was, probably, no Greek town which had not its 
gymnasium ; and no healthy Greek boy, who was not 
disciplined in its severe exercise. The culmination of 
this discipline found its exponent in the national festi- 
vals of Greece, the Isthmian games near Corinth, and 
the more celebrated contests of Olympia. St. Paul, dur- 
ing his abode in Corinth, had been brought in close 
contact with these scenes, and he saw with his own 
eyes, how much toil, and drill, and sacrifice, men would 
endure for the sake of gaining the notoriety of being a 
conqueror at the Isthmus, or at Olympia. Day after 
day, and week after week, and month after month, these 
aspirants for honor; would devote themselves to wrest- 
ling, boxing, running, leaping, and all other gymnastic 
exercise, with patience, amidst privations; with no com- 
plaint of its severity of discipline ; with no hesitation to 
endure its hardness; in the hope that the herald would 
one day shout their names as victors to the assembled 
multitudes, and link their names to the Olympiad in 
which they were conquerors. 

The idea, then, of the apostle is, that in order to at- 



246 



THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 



tain unto godliness, we must be moral gymnasts, will- 
ing to use as severe discipline; to undergo as painful 
privations; to bear as torturing an exercise of flesh and 
blood ; as the gymnast did, who trained himself to win 
the wreath of ivy at the Isthmian festival, or the gar- 
land of wild olives which crowned the conqueror at 
Olympia. And why should we not? The aims are in- 
finitely higher, and the rewards are infinitely greater. 
The arena in which we are to perform this exercise is in 
the Church of God. The methods by which we are to 
do it are as various as our various temperame'nts, tastes, 
positions, talents, and opportunities. There is no one 
who can not do something, and upon all is laid the duty 
of living to the glory of God. 

Thus true religion is a very personal and practical 
thing. Personal ; because it is thyself that is to do the 
exercise ; it is an individual act, and no amount of exer- 
cise done by those around you in the same family, the 
same church ; can avail to your benefit. It is thyself that 
must be the moral gymnast in this spiritual conflict. 
And it is practical ; because the things in which we are 
to exercise ourselves unto godliness are all around our 
daily life. We are to exercise ourselves in restraining 
a quick temper, in checking impatience, in bridling the 
tongue, in ruling the spirit, in rooting out personal de- 
fects of mind and heart; in overcoming temptations, to 
lust, and pride, and envy, and hatred, and strife; in 
bearing with the infirmities of others, in being meek 
under reproach, in not rendering railing for railing, in 
not murmuring at God's dispensations, in subduing in- 
dwelling sin. And to this repressive work, which de- 
mands constant exercise, there is to be added an ag- 
gressive work; a watching of opportunities for good, a 



THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 247 



going out into the field of active Christian exertion, a 
giving up of some portion of time to works of Christian 
love and duty, a readiness to give liberally, to teach 
lovingly, to sacrifice cheerfully of our comforts that we 
may do good to the poor, the low, the ignorant, the out- 
cast, the prisoner, the sick, the afflicted ; and if we can 
do no more, we can give a cup of cold water to some 
one of Christ's sorrowing ones, and that " shall not lose 
its reward." 

Moral powers, like the muscles of the body, are devel- 
oped by exercise. The unused arm shrivels up ; the un- 
used hand loses its cunning ; the unused brain loses its 
force. The law of physical growth and strength is ex- 
ercise. The law of spiritual growth and strength is 
spiritual exercises, — doing with our might what our 
hands find to do, laboring with all diligence to make 
our calling and election sure, working while it is day, 
and giving our bodies to be " living sacrifices, holy, ac- 
ceptable unto God." 

Our moral character is a thing of growth, and of slow 
growth ; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full 
corn in the ear. Character is principle put into practice 
and developed under trial. This wrestling with difficul- 
ties, with temptations, with disappointments, develops 
the thews and brawn of the mind; and makes strong 
and compact the affections of the heart. It is a succes- 
sion of little daily victories over little daily trials ; little 
daily resistings of little temptations; little daily put- 
tings forth of earnest, truthful efforts for good ; that go 
to make up a well-developed character. The sculptor, 
in the vividness of his imagination, mentally depicts the 
figure which he will chisel out of the marble block be- 
fore him ; but before his ideal becomes a reality, before 



248 THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 



his hand fashions what his fancy portrayed, how many 
weeks and months must he " exercise himself" in his art, 
with patient hammer, with skilful chisel, with cautious 
hand, before the marble breathes with the artist's life, 
and the stone speaks out the sculptor's thoughts. So it 
is with the production of godliness. It is not the prod- 
uct of a day, the work of a few mental resolves ; it is the 
result of downright exercise, the quiet, earnest, persist- 
ent, unyielding, daily toil of the heart yearning after 
the glory of God, struggling to become like God. The 
drill of the soldier which fits him for the fight, is a 
minute and daily exercise of evolutions and handling of 
arms, each by itself, of the most trivial character. The 
soldier's battles are few, but his drill is every day. It 
is this daily drill in little points, that fits him for battle ; 
and he could never be prepared for war, but for this 
minute discipline in the manual of arms, and the tactics 
of the field. So with the Christian life. It has few 
great epochs, and when these occur, they can never be 
met with success, unless there has been a daily exer- 
cising of one's self unto godliness. It is not much, per- 
haps, that he can do any one day ; but it is the patient 
doing of many little things which multiply day by day 
into the great and the influential. 

How much of this kind of exercising of one's self is 
demanded by the exhortation, "bear one another's bur- 
dens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." What self-exer- 
cises are involved here, to bear each others burden of 
poverty, of affliction, of sickness, of disappointment! In 
each of these to a suffering brother, prove yourself to be 
a brother, with a brother's warm heart, and a brother's 
strong hand. 

Exercise yourselves in helping each other spiritually. 



THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 



249 



Helping the sinner, out of his sinfulness; the seeker after 
Christ, to find Christ ; the penitent, to the great Giver of 
pardon ; the conscience-troubled, to the Comforter. Help 
your brother out of his doubts and unbelief ; out of his 
backslidings and remissness of duty; out of his luke- 
warmness and indifference. Help him to walk in the 
path of duty, to learn his Master's will, to conquer his 
evil propensities, to lop off wrong habits, to curb his 
tongue, to rule his spirit. Help him in prayer, in good 
works, in cultivating the graces of the Spirit. Take up 
one end of all his burdens, and help him to bear them 
for Jesus' sake. 

Exercise yourselves in prayer, in strict self-examina- 
tion, in conscientious alms-giving, in diligent reading of 
God's word, in personal labors for the salvation of souls. 
Exercise yourself in daily ministrations to the poor, the 
sick, and the afflicted ; and in copying line by line, and 
feature by feature, the lineaments of Jesus, who went 
about doing good, so that His life may shape your life, 
His spirit guide your spirit, His words mould your minds, 
His deeds stimulate your acts ; and thus, like an earthly 
mirror held to the noonday sun, reflect from the surface 
of your grace-polished heart, the light and the glory, 
reduced indeed in size and in strength, but still the re- 
flected light and glory of the Sun of righteousness. Thus 
exercising yourself unto godliness you become more and 
more meet for the inheritance of the saints in light; and 
will ere long, enter into that world of light where all is 
pure, and true, and good, because it is the dwelling- 
place of a Holy God. 



XXL 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 

" And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity : so is the tongue among 
our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course 
of nature ; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of 
birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been 
tamed of mankind : but the tongue can no man tame ; it is an unruly evil, 
full of deadly poison. 5? — James hi. 6-8. 

Speech is at once the glory, and the shame of man. 
His glory, as it distinguishes him above all earthly creat- 
ures; as it puts him in communication with his fellow- 
men; as it enables him to pray to and praise his Creator; 
as it allies him to angelic beings. His shame, in that he 
uses this noble faculty, to dishonor himself, his neighbor, 
and his God. 

In no work of the human mind, do we find so terse 
and truthful a description of the character and power 
of the human tongue, as in the Epistle of St. James. In 
these few verses, is found the most graphic outlines of 
what this tongue is, has been, can be, and ought to be; 
and by a series of most striking statements and illustra- 
tions, he sets forth the tongue in its qualities of good 
or bad ; warning us against the bad, urging us to culti- 
vate the good. 

Before we proceed to discuss the quality of the tongue, 
let us first take up the apostle's words, and show the 
power of the tongue. In doing this he uses three illus- 
trations. 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



251 



First, he compares it "to bits" in horses' mouths. The 
horse is more powerful than several men; yet by put- 
ting a small bit into his mouth, a little child can guide 
him, and turn about his whole huge body. As the bit 
is small, in comparison with the size of the horse, and 
yet controls the horse ; so the tongue is small in com- 
parison with the whole body, and yet it is the control- 
ling member of that body. 

Secondly, St. James compares it to "the helm" of a 
ship. The largest vessels, in the fiercest gales, and on 
the most boisterous seas, are steered by a small rudder ; 
a little and almost insignificant piece of wood, in com- 
parison with the monster ship which it controls. Yet, 
small as it is, by it, the helmsman steers the rolling and 
toppling vessel, and guides it through storm and billows 
to the haven where he would be. So the tongue, little 
and like the rudder kept almost always out of sight, yet 
controls the whole body. The tongue is to the life of 
man what the helm is to the ship. It is the rudder 
which steers all his movements and guides him into 
the port of peace or into the pit of woe. 

Thirdly, St. James compares the power of the tongue 
to a fire. " Behold how great a matter a little fire kin- 
dleth:" and "the tongue is a fire." A spark lighting 
on the dry wood of a forest, may cause one branch of 
a tree to take fire; it may spread to the trunk; it may 
catch the next tree, and thus progress, until the whole 
forest shall be burned by one little spark. So a spark- 
like word dropped from a tongue burning with anger, 
or with zeal; may fall into a family, a community, a 
town, a church, a whole country, and set them in a 
blaze of consuming, burning rage. 

With regard to this tongue under the figure of a fire, 



252 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



St. James goes on to say, that "it setteth on fire the 
course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." These 
are strong words. What do they mean ? 

The word "course" is, in the original, wheel or circle 
of nature, and may mean the generations of men suc- 
ceeding each other with the rapidity of the revolutions 
of a wheel ; or the course of a man's life ; or the circle of 
human affairs. Each of these ideas, might have been in 
the mind of the apostle, because, the tongue does set on 
fire a whole generation of men ; does ignite the whole 
course of a man's life; and does make the circle of social 
life to blaze under its fiery appliances. 

But St. James goes on to say of this tongue, which is 
itself a fire, that "it is set on fire of hell." The idea is 
that the tongue derives all its power to do harm from 
the evil influences which have their origin in hell. That 
which conveyed to the Hebrew mind the most vivid im- 
pression of eternal suffering, was the ever-burning fire 
of Gehenna. This fire — originally kindled in the valley 
of the son of Hinnom to burn up the offal and refuse of 
the city of Jerusalem, and kept supplied with its filthy 
fuel night and day — conveyed to the mind of the Isra- 
elite, an idea of intense pollution, mingled with intense 
suffering ; and as every fire kindled from the fire on the 
altar was regarded as holy ; so every fire kindled from 
that in Gehenna, or hell, was deemed unclean and de- 
filing. Hence the tongue as a fire ignited from hell 
partakes of the nature of hell, and becomes a hellish 
tongue. But the idea conveys even more than this. 
The Prince of darkness who reigns in hell over fallen 
angels and fallen men; is designated in the Bible, not 
only as a liar from the beginning, but as " the Father 
of lies"; and he is said by St. Paul to "work with all 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



253 



lying wonders and deceivableness of unrighteousness " ; 
and St. John calls him "the great dragon, that old ser- 
pent, the devil, and Satan which deceiveth the whole 
world." It is he then, who has his abode in hell; who 
instigates every lie, and every filthy word, and all sin- 
ful speech of men; and hence the tongue of fire, which 
setteth on fire the course of nature, is justly said to be 
set on fire from hell, because it is instigated to do its 
evil by the Prince of hell. That is the birthplace of 
each sin of the tongue, as well as each sin of the heart. 

St. James illustrates still further the power of the 
tongue, by comparing it with ferocious beasts and other 
animals; and pronouncing it more ferocious and untam- 
able than any thing on earth. You can sooner make 
the condor of the Andes perch upon your wrist; you 
can sooner make leviathan sport with you, in the crest- 
ing surf; you can sooner make the boa-constrictor coil 
harmlessly around your neck; you can sooner make the 
lion so gentle that a little child can lead him; — than 
tame the tongue; for "the tongue," he says, "can no 
man tame." What a strong declaration this is concern- 
ing the power of the tongue ! "Well may he say "it is 
an unruly evil full of deadly poison." 

If we look into other portions of the Bible, we shall 
find further metaphors to indicate the power of the 
tongue. Job calls it "a scourge or a whip" whose every 
blow inflicts severe wounds on the character and leaves 
its purple welts on the lacerated peace and reputation. 
Daniel styles the tongue "a sharp sword," a murderous 
weapon, which hews down those upon whom it falls, and 
drips with the gore of slaughtered innocence or virtue. 
Jeremiah says of the tongue, it "is an arrow, shot out." 
A pointed arrow shot by wicked archers, against those 



254 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



whom they wish to pierce through with anguish, and 
yet themselves keep at a distance from the one whose 
good name they aim to destroy. St. Paul, speaking of 
the lips through which the tongue speaks, says "the 
poison of asps is under their lips " ; and St. James says 
it is full of deadly poison, as the great venom bag from 
which the asp or the serpent ejects his poison lies un- 
der the tongue, and when that is excited he thrusts its 
forked fangs into its victim; so under the tongue of 
such men as slanderers lies a poison bag which secretes 
its deadly venom, and spits it forth into the wound 
Avhich its viper tongue makes, and there it rankles and 
swells and does its deadly work. 

These are some of the illustrations which the Bible 
uses in speaking of the evil tongue, and they show in 
striking light the poicer of the tongue. Nor are these 
metaphors at all too strong to express the might and in- 
fluence of this little member, concerning which the Bible 
says "life and death are in the power of the tongue." 
Does not all history confirm this statement. Has not 
the strife of tongues, been the fruitful cause of nearly all 
the wars which have saturated the ground with blood ? 
Has not an evil tongue, been that which has broken up 
the peace of families and churches and communities and 
nations? Does not lying, falsehood, deceit, hypocrisy, 
slander, backbiting, issue forth from the tongue? Are 
not profanity and cursing, and filthy talking, the soul-de- 
stroying products of an uncircumcised tongue ? Surely 
it is not too strong language to say with St. James, that 
"the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; that it setteth 
on fire the course of nature, and that it is set on fire 
of hell." 

Such being the general outlines of the character of an 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



255 



evil tongue ; let us now descend to some particular sins 
of the tongue ; because only as we expose and drag to 
light those sins, can their vileness and influence be made 
apparent. To enumerate all our tongue-sins would be 
impossible; for they ramify into every department of 
public and private life, and cover the entire face of the 
world. There are several, however, which the Bible 
brings prominently before us, and to these we must 
confine ourselves at this time. 

The first tongue-sin which I will name is that of 
tattling; by this I mean a thoughtless, trifling, heedless 
talking. St. Paul speaks of such tattlers, and calls them 
"busybodies," who out of idleness roam about retailing 
from house to house, the talk which they have heard. 
The tattler is never so happy as when talking. He 
must speak, it matters little what he says ; and hence he 
rattles away, telling any thing, and every thing, that 
comes into his mind. Their conversation is, as Bishop 
Butler says, " merely an exercise of the tongue; no other 
human faculty has any share in it." There is a pro- 
cess in chemistry, by which you can arrest the invisi- 
ble gas, and weigh it, and separate it into its constitu- 
ent elements ; and were there moral re-agents by which 
we could arrest the gaseous tattle of these busybodies, 
and resolve it into its elements, its constituent parts 
would be folly, slander, falsehood, flattery, and boastful- 
ness. What a source of domestic and social misery is 
found in the tongue of the talebearer. He indeed "scat- 
tereth firebrands, arrows, and death," and saith, "Am not 
I in sport?" It has been well said by an English writer, 
that u the author of an evil insinuation or slander does 
not usually carry it about himself; but he ties it to a 
few idle vagabonds; just as Samson tied firebrands to 



256 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



the tails of the three hundred foxes and turned them 
into the standing corn of the Philistines." These tattlers 
with their fire-kindling tongues, do indeed set in a flame 
a whole town, a community. It is impossible to esti- 
mate the evils of this unrestrained volubility ; this wan- 
ton talking of an unbridled tongue. It is the fruitful 
source of strifes, anger, heart-burnings, dissensions in 
families, defamation, malice; and such a tongue is in- 
deed set on fire of hell. 

The second tongue-sin is slander. Under this head I 
enumerate backbiting, or speaking evil of one behind 
his back; defaming one's good name by absolute or im- 
plied censure ; detraction, envious jealousies, secret whis- 
perings, and innuendoes, and all other ways by which the 
tongue wounds and injures the name and reputation of 
another. Twice, does the apostle, speaking of false ac- 
cusers, term them Diaboloi; and the meaning of the word 
Diaboloi is slanderous, libellous, injurious ; and this is the 
term constantly applied to the devil, because he is, as St. 
John styles him, u the accuser of our brethren." The 
devil then, is, as Christ says, "the Father of lies"; and 
every one who gives his tongue to slander, and maligns 
his neighbors, or utters words of falsehood or detrac- 
tion; comes into the class of those false accusers, those 
Diaboloi of which Jesus truly said, "Ye are of your father 
the devil." There are various ways in which slander is 
uttered, each of which finds its illustration, and each its 
condemnation, in Scripture. Let me specify a few. The 
grossest kind of slander is bearing false witness: that is, 
saying a person did things which he did not do ; as was 
the case with those suborned to testify against Naboth 
whose vineyard Ahab coveted; as was the case with 
the false witness, who laid to David's charge things 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



257 



which he knew not of. This false witness is sometimes 
spoken openly, sometimes in secret, but always with ma- 
licious intent ; and in every instance the tongue which 
utters it, not only setteth on fire the course of nature, 
but is set on fire of hell. Another way of slandering is 
by the use of scandalous and opprobrious epithets: as 
when Korah accused Moses of being unjust and ambi- 
tious; as when the Pharisees called our Lord a glutton- 
ous man. Every epithet which you apply to a man is 
designed to brand the character of that person, and ren- 
der it odious in the sight of others ; and this is mostly 
done behind one's back; where for a long time, perhaps, 
he can not hear of it, and where, it may be, he can 
never defend or clear himself of the slander. Such a 
tongue is indeed like a vipers, lurking in secret, and 
suddenly shooting out its fatal venom. 

" No might nor greatness in mortality 
Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny 
The whitest virtue strikes; what king so strong 
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue? " 

Another way of slandering is to impute false motives 
to good actions. When we say of a liberal man, that 
he is vainglorious; of an active man in church affairs, 
that he is a Diotrephes; of a prudent man, that he is 
miserly; of a devout man, that he is hypocritical; as- 
cribing to the actions of persons, not good motives and 
designs, but evil ones, wherever it is possible to imagine 
such. 

Another way is, to distort and pervert views, words, 
and actions : giving them a false construction ; suppress- 
ing what might appear good; magnifying what might 
seem to be evil. This is taking a man's words and 
17 



258 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



deeds, and, like Komish inquisitors, stretching them 
upon the rack until they become disjointed, and the once 
symmetrical form is all distorted and awry by reason 
of the unjust treatment to which slander subjects it. 
Another way is by insinuations, sly suggestions, ex- 
pressions of doubt, intimations as to something con- 
cealed, a qualifying of the praise of others by some 
question implying distrust, or lack of confidence. In 
this way, without any downright assertions, but by 
oblique remarks and masked calumnies ; is the charac- 
ter of your neighbor made to suffer; distrust of him is 
spread abroad, and he is pierced through by the arrow 
of malevolence, which the tongue of the slanderer, like 
a bow bent and charged with lies, has shot against him. 
A good character is one of the richest estates man can 
own. "A good name," says the wise man, "is better 
than precious ointment. Yea, a good name is rather 
to be chosen than great riches ; " yet the slanderer 
steals away this good name, and seeks to ruin this 
goodly possession. Yet how often he goes unwhipt of 
justice. 

"Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; 
But he that niches from me my good name, 
Robs me of that, which not enriches him, 
And makes me poor indeed." 

The third tongue-sin which St. James mentions, is, the 
fretful, scolding, tongue. There are those who are al- 
ways repining and complaining. Even if blessings come, 
they murmur because they are no greater, and are ready 
to find fault, not only with all the dealings of their fel- 
low-men, but with all the providences of God. Noth- 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



259 



ing receives their -unqualified commendation. There is 
always some abating, or qualifying, expression. They 
never give full credit for goodness; but always over- 
estimate badness. Peevishness is the habitual tone of 
their talk. They look at every thing through this jaun- 
diced medium; and they make the air around them pesti- 
lent with the mephitic exhalations of their fretful tongue. 
No character escapes their malevolence; and the more 
polish and lustre a character has, the more they delight 
to tarnish it, by the breath of slander. Such persons are 
miserable unless they are engaged in detraction. They 
glory in their shame. 

Falsehood is another grievous tongue-sin; and in this 
I would include all kinds of lying. The lie positive, and 
the lie negative ; the lie direct, and the lie by implica- 
tion; the lie malignant and the lie sportive; every de- 
signed departure from truth is falsehood; and every 
falsehood is a sin against one's own soul, a sin against 
your fellow-men, and a sin against God, which he will 
punish with fearful severity. Should you attempt to sift 
the conversation which you hear in the common inter- 
course of life, you would be surprised to find how much 
of falsehood it contains. Not the glaring, naked lie, bold, 
impudent, heaven-defying; but in the form of prevari- 
cation, distortion of facts, suppression of truth, or some 
one of the many minor forms which the tongue employs 
in uttering lies before God. 

The tongue commits a great sin when it is used in 
filthy talking and indecent speech. It is greatly to be 
lamented that even in polite, and what would pass for 
modest society, there is too much of tampering with this 
sin. Gross indelicacy would of course be avoided ; but 
covert expressions, double entendres, innuendoes, pass- 



260 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



ing allusions, indirect assertions, are too much indulged 
in ; and with a relish which shows, alas ! that the heart 
is not averse from that kind of talking, which it rather 
countenances than condemns. The frail tongue evi- 
dences a frail heart, for out of the abundance of the 
heart the mouth speaketh. The unclean breast, like the 
volcano, is ever ejecting from its sulphurous mouth its 
unclean belchings, and pours its indecencies over the 
fairest aspects of society. 

Another tongue-sin is boasting. "The tongue is a 
little member, but boasteth great things." Boasting re- 
sults from an over-estimate of ourselves, and an under- 
estimate of others. It is selfishness manifesting itself in 
words. It is the inflated mind, venting itself in windy 
words. It betrays weakness, littleness, ignorance, van- 
ity, self-conceit, arrogance, presumption. Yet it is a 
sin which we daily meet with ; for men ever delight to 
tell of themselves, their sayings and doings, vaunting 
themselves above measure; and in order to elevate them- 
selves, they make stilts of the reputation of others, and 
decry the doings of their neighbors, that their own may 
appear more grand and towering. 

Another sin of the tongue, is flattery, or the giv- 
ing of undue and undeserved praise. The desire to 
say something that will please the person we are 
speaking to, or that will secure his favor, or elevate 
us in his regard; or the desire, perhaps, to have him 
reciprocate the compliment, and flatter us, is the usual 
motive for this sin of the tongue. Yet flattery is a 
species of untruth; for it magnifies real merit beyond 
just grounds, and feigns a merit where none exists. 
Flattery is used in all ranks and classes. In the fam- 
ily, in society, in business, in professional life, in pol- 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



261 



itics, in the Church. And yet how true is it, as Solo- 
mon says, "He that flattereth his neighbor, spreadeth 
a net for his feet." 

Lastly, there is the sin of profanity, the taking of God's 
name in vain. I need not here speak of that open blas- 
phemy which so offends the ear even of those who do 
not profess and call themselves Christians ; but shall re- 
strict myself to those who, while they would not swear, 
as vulgar people do, yet in various ways and by indirect 
methods do take God's name in vain. How many are 
the epithets, and phrases, circulating from mouth to 
mouth, even among good people, which, when reduced 
to the last analysis, is, in God's sight, a taking of His 
name in vain ! How many ejaculations bordering on 
profanity, how many exclamations having the aspect 
of thinly-disguised blasphemies, are current in society. 
These tend to weaken conscience — are almost self-con- 
scious violations of the third commandment, and al- 
ways detract from integrity of character, by showing 
inward thoughts and emotions, that would utter them- 
selves in profanity if they dared, and are only kept 
back and masked by social considerations, rather than 
reverence for God's hallowed name. The Christian 
can not be too careful to purge his speech of all such 
things, and never to let his tongue use such questiona- 
ble asseverations. 

Such being some of the sins of this mighty, this un- 
bridled, this untamable tongue, what are the threaten- 
ings of God against all such sinfulness of speech ? With 
regard to the first tongue-sin, Tattling, the Bible says, 
M Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment, and 
a babbler is no better." It was commanded in the law 
of Moses, "Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale- 



262 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



bearer among thy people"; and the Scripture says, "The 
words of a tale-bearer, are as wounds"; and Solomon 
declares, "In the multitude of words there wanteth 
not sin." 

Against the second tongue-sin, Slander, God utters 
fierce denunciation. " Whoso privily slandereth his 
neighbor, him will I cut off." He that uttereth slan- 
der is a fool; because while he is attempting to kill 
the character of his neighbor, he is slaying his own. 

Against the third sin, Fretfulness, and Scolding, and 
Murmuring, there are strong threatenings ; and God's 
condign punishment of the murmurings of the children 
of Israel are frequently mentioned in the Bible. 

Against the fourth sin, Falsehood, God says, "He that 
telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight." "Lying lips 
are an abomination to the Lord," and no liar shall enter 
into the kingdom of Heaven. 

Against the fifth sin, Filthy talking, God says, " Let 
no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth." 
He declares that nothing that defileth shall go in at the 
gate of the Celestial City, that only " he who hath pure 
hands and a clean heart shall ascend into the hill of the 
Lord." Every impure word is a direct violation of the 
seventh commandment, and every unchaste thought is 
an insult to a holy God, who has declared only "the 
pure in heart shall see God." 

Against the sixth sin, Boasting, the Psalmist says, 
" The Lord shall cut off the tongue that speaketh proud 
(great or boastful) things." Paul classifies them with 
backbiters, haters of God, inventors of evil things, all of 
whom "are reprobate," and St. James says, all such 
boasting is evil. 

Against the seventh sin, Flattery, God says, "Meddle 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



263 



not with him that flattereth with his lips," " a flattering 
mouth worketh ruin." 

Against the eighth sin, which is a direct violation of 
the third commandment, God says He will not hold him 
guiltless who taketh His name in vain, and that blas- 
phemers with liars and adulterers shall have their part 
in the lake which burneth forever. 

Such are some of the more marked tongue-sins among 
men ; and from even this brief enumeration you will per- 
ceive that the description which St. James gives of this 
little member is not at all exaggerated. Not an epithet 
is applied to it which it does not deserve; not an illus- 
tration used which is not of the utmost force. With 
what care, then, should we bridle the tongue; for God 
says, "If any man among you seem to be religious, 
and bridleth not his tongue, that man s religion is vain." 
With what steadiness should we hold this tongue which, 
like the little helm of a ship, turns about our whole 
course of life ! With what watchfulness mark the spark- 
dropping words of this tongue, which is itself a fire and 
kindleth great conflagrations ! With what caution use 
an instrument of speech which has under it " the poison 
of asps " ! With what assiduity should we seek to tame 
that most untamable of things, that it rends us not by 
its fierceness, and ravin not upon society by its brute- 
like goadings! Yet we can not do this in our own 
strength or wisdom, and our prayer must be that of the 
Psalmist, "Set a watch, Lord, before my mouth. 
Keep the door of my lips." We must seek for divine 
grace to aid us in subduing and controlling the tongue. 
We must seek to have hearts created anew in Christ 
J esus ; for if our hearts are right with God our speech 
will be also. If our hearts are clean, our lips w T ill be 



264: 



SINS OF THE TONGUE. 



clean. If our hearts are pure, our tongue will be pure. 
The cleansing process then must begin in the heart. The 
cleansing power must be the Holy Ghost; 'He only can 
sanctify it and make it pure, and He will do it if the 
heart is given to Jesus, for He takes all hearts, and 
purifying them by faith, makes them the habitation of 
God in the Spirit. 



XXII. 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 

"And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens." — Acts xvii. 15. 

In simple but picturesque language, St. Luke portrays 
the great apostle on Mars' Hill preaching " Jesus and 
the resurrection." Eaphael has made this scene the 
subject of one of his matchless cartoons; and poetry 
and theology have vied with each other in giving de- 
scriptive force to an event, which stands out the boldest 
effort of the new religion of Jesus, to meet and give 
wage of battle, to the mythology, and the philosophies 
of the Grecian mind, at a time when Greek thought, 
in art, in letters, and in song, ruled the intellectual 
world. 

Athens was one of the most splendid cities of ancient 
times. Every thing that could fill the mind with gran- 
deur, that could captivate the imagination, that could 
rouse the passions, that could minister to the senses, 
was congregated in that city, which Milton terms "the 
eye of Greece, mother of arts and eloquence." 

But the moral character of the Athenians was as low, 
as their intellect was high. It was a polluted and licen- 
tious city; where every lust had its patron god, and 
every passion its flaming altar. 

As usual, St. Paul went first to the J ews, and in their 



266 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 



synagogue spoke of the Messiah, then in the houses of 
devout Israelites, he talked with them of the Hope of 
Israel, then in the Agora, or market-place, daily con- 
versed with those whom he casually met in that mart of 
trade. Thus did he, though a stranger and alone, seek 
every opportunity to preach to all classes "Jesus and the 
resurrection." 

Such an inquisitive and speculative people, having 
heard of this Jewish stranger, and being curious to 
learn about Jesus and the resurrection, whom they 
ignorantly thought were but names of foreign gods; 
brought him to Mars' Hill, where was held the supreme 
council of Greece, and where Socrates had been con- 
demned for almost the same charge now laid against 
the apostle as "a setter forth of strange gods." And 
now standing on such a spot, and before such an audi- 
ence, how does the apostle speak? With that wonder- 
fully self-adjusting power, by which he puts himself in 
sympathy with his audience, whether standing on the 
steps of the castle of Antonio ; or before King Agrippa ; 
or in the council chamber at Jerusalem ; he at once en- 
lists on his side the kindly feeling of the assembly by 
his opening sentence, "Ye men of Athens, I perceive 
that ye are a religious, a god-fearing people." In proof 
of this national characteristic, he tells them, "As I passed 
by, I saw an altar with this inscription, To the unknown 
God ; " as if he had said, ye are so careful of worshipping 
all the gods, that, lest any one should be omitted through 
ignorance, you even erect an altar to the unknown God. 
Taking this incident as a text, he skilfully turns it to 
his own use, and in courteous words says, "Whom there- 
fore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." 
With a skill which we can well call masterly, because 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 267 



it was divinely inspired, he, in a few carefully chosen 
sentences, meets every phase of Hellenistic character, 
and every point of Hellenistic philosophy ; and showing 
the falsity of each, unveils before them a true theology, 
a true anthropology, a true philosophy; summing up all 
in the declaration that God commanded u all men every- 
where to repent," because "He will judge the world in 
righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; 
whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that 
He hath raised Him from the dead." 

It was the first time that the religion of Jesus Christ 
stood face to face with Grecian mythology and Grecian 
philosophy. Let us observe how it met each. 

Standing on Mars' Hill there rose before St. Paul the 
Acropolis, crowned with the Parthenon, that marvellous 
temple devoted to the virgin goddess, and perhaps the 
noblest marble shrine ever erected to a heathen deity. 
Pointing to this, as he utters the words, " God, that 
made the world, and all things therein, seeing that he is 
Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made 
with hands ; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as 
though he needed any thing, seeing that he giveth to 
all life, and breath, and all things," he annihilates the 
whole temple system. There could be no such thing as 
localizing a God, who was " Lord of heaven and earth." 
As he tells them, u And hath made of one blood all 
nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the 
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, 
and the bounds of their habitation," he struck down 
that ethnic pride of the Athenians, who boasted of 
themselves as being superior to all other races, and 
wore golden grasshoppers in their hair in proof of 
their indigenous origin; and he also set forth the true 



268 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 



cosmogony, and the unity, and equality of the human 
race. As he warns them to " seek the Lord, if haply 
they might find him, though He be not far from every 
one of us; for in Him we live, and move, and have our 
being;" riveting the declaration, by a quotation from 
one of their own poets, Aratus, he deals a stalwart 
blow at the Pantheistic philosophy which represented 
God as in every thing, and every thing in God. As he 
utters the words, "Forasmuch then as we are the off- 
spring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead 
is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and 
man's device," he breaks, like an apostolic iconoclast, 
the whole idol system of the world, and shows its de- 
grading effects on God and man ; thus rebuking with in- 
tense force a people " wholly given to idolatry." As he 
assures them that God, having overlooked these things 
in the past, " now commandeth all men everywhere to 
repent; because he hath appointed a day in the which 
he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man 
whom He hath ordained; whereof he hath given assu- 
rance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the 
dead" — he explodes the Stoical dogma, that man is not 
an accountable being, that there is no sin to repent of, 
and that there is no future judgment ; and teaches them 
the great truth of our sinfulness, which needs repent- 
ance; of our accountability, which requires a future judg- 
ment; of our relation to Jesus Christ, who hath been or- 
dained our judge, and of the immortality of the soul, in 
the great fact that there is to be a resurrection of the 
dead. Thus he establishes the unity of God, in opposi- 
tion to Polytheism ; the making of heaven and earth by 
God, in opposition to the Epicurean doctrine that all 
things were made by the fortuitous concurrence of 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 



269 



atoms; the intelligent and active government of the 
universe by God, in opposition to the fatalism of the 
Stoics; and the entire withdrawal of God from the ad- 
ministration of the world, as asserted by Epicurus; and 
the unity, and equality of the human race, as u made of 
one blood," in opposition to the assumptions of the Athe- 
nians, that they were the only autochthonoi — indigenous 
to the soil. 

What a wonderful scope of thought! What a won- 
derful terseness of expression ! What a wonderful adap- 
tation to his audience, and to his surroundings, is found 
in this oration of Paul on Mars' Hill! Well do I re- 
member as I stood on Mars' Hill, looking across the in- 
tervening valley to the Berma, the stone platform on 
which Demosthenes spoke his celebrated philippics, and 
mentally contrasting the heathen and the Christian ora- 
tors! Paul, short of stature, and rude in speech, having 
but little personal attraction, and deliberately setting 
aside the wisdom of men and the philosophy of the 
schools, spoke on subjects which provoked the enmity 
of the carnal mind. Demosthenes, of good presence, and 
carefully cultivated oratorical powers, spoke on topics 
which absorbed the public mind, stirred the depths of 
every patriot's heart, and roused all Greece to arms 
against Philip of Macedon. The effect of the orations 
of Demosthenes, was, for a time, of the most powerful 
kind; but being linked with an exciting state of political 
affairs, passed away with the politics, and the events, 
which called them forth. His eloquence now, is known 
as a thing of the past, and lives now, only in the faint 
reverberations of the Berma, as we catch now and then 
the stirring words of his orations as preserved in the 
classics of the university. But the speech of Paul on 



270 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 



Mars' Hill left its impress on Greece forever ! Not only 
has the idolatry of that city faded away before its power ; 
not only are the once frequented temples deserted, and 
in ruins; not only have the philosophies of Zeno and 
Epicurus, as well as the dogmas of Plato and Socrates 
given place to a Christian philosophy and Christian 
ethics ; but all Greece is nominally Christian ; and every 
church in Greece, and every altar in Greece, and every 
bishop in Greece, and every Christian in Greece, testi- 
fies to this day of the power of the apostle's words, and 
to the vitality and moulding influence of his oration on 
the Greek mind and Greek life for eighteen centuries. 
All has sprung from this one discourse on Mars' Hill. 
"The scenes of a day, and the speech of an hour, have 
regenerated a nation. 

What now are the practical lessons which this scene 
teaches us, in this age and this nation? To speak of 
them all, would be to comment on every sentence which 
Paul uttered ; for each was a seed-thought that, planted 
in the soil of meditation, brings forth rich fruit. 

Let me touch, then, upon a few only, as illustrative 
of all. 

The first which comes out is, that suggested by the 
fact that Athens was a city " wholly given to idolatry," 
viz., that the loftiest efforts of unaided men, can produce 
no higher religion than a refined Polytheism. This truth 
is confirmed by the existing records of every heathen 
nation. Had man been left to himself, he never would 
have known the true God: and hence the blessedness, 
and the privilege, of living in an age, and in a land, 
where the Triune God is known and worshipped, as at 
once the true God, and eternal life. 

This chapter teaches, that art and literature have in 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 



271 



themselves no conserving moral force. The citizens of 
Athens were indeed very cultivated in all the beauties 
of art and literature. They had a poetry, which main- 
tains its precedence to this day ; a literature, unsurpassed 
in eloquence and vigor ; an oratory, such as flowed from 
the lips of iEeschines and Demosthenes; ethics and 
economics, such as were taught by Plato and Socrates ; 
an art, developing itself in paintings, and statues, and 
architecture, which are even now the proudest monu- 
ments of human skill : — yet the morality of the gospel, 
was wanting ; and just as in the age of Louis the XIV 
in France ; just as in the Augustan age at Rome ; so then, 
art and literature were not only powerless to arrest and 
turn aside immorality ; but they absolutely ministered to 
human lusts, and inflamed human passions. Having in 
them no elements of purity or piety, they became the 
gilded chariots, and the garlanded steeds, which hurried 
the nation to its deeper debasement, and its final ruin. 
All cultivation of the intellect, aside from its relation to 
God on the one hand, and to the immortality of the soul, 
on the other ; is dangerous to the soul, and insulting to 
Him who breathed into man this living breath, and gave 
to him the dower of immortality. The mind is right- 
ly cultivated only when educated in the principles of 
personal accountability to God for the use of its facul- 
ties, and a personal responsibility which will be exacted 
of us at the judgment day. Hence the danger to the 
soul of a merely secular education. Hence the evil of 
divorcing education and religion. Hence the need of a 
Christian leaven in our secular schools and colleges ; for 
this is the life and conservator of true morality, and true 
mental nobility. 

This chapter shows us that philosophy, originating in 



272 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 



human minds, and based only on a finite knowledge of 
God, and a partial view of man, can construct no true 
system of belief or duty. Philosophy, by which I mean 
that higher science which teaches man his relations to 
God and the world, requires three constant factors to its 
full and true development, viz. : a first or primeval Cause; 
a full knowledge of this first Cause, or Eternal Being; 
and a full knowledge of man himself. Just in propor- 
tion as these three essential foundation truths are ac- 
knowledged and made influential, just in that proportion 
will our philosophy be true and sound. And just as 
they are lacking, our philosophy will be defective and 
unsound. But no human mind can grasp these three 
factors in their fulness, because they are infinitely be- 
yond its compass and power. We must look then above 
man, and beyond the world, to get this true philosophy; 
and we find it in the revelation of God. But God is 
revealed to us, only "in the face of Jesus Christ," "no 
man knoweth who the Father is, but the Son, and he, 
to whom the Son will reveal Him ; " and Jesus only of 
all who ever wore the human form, "needed not that 
any should testify of man; for he knew what was in 
man." So then, as we rise in our generalization, we 
reach the fact, which St. Paul so grandly asserts, that 
in Jesus Christ are "hid all the treasures of wisdom 
and knowledge." He, therefore, is the ultimate of all 
philosophy, and the fountain of all philosophy. He is 
alike the centripetal, and the centrifugal force, which 
holds in harmony, and guides in motion, all moral law; 
so that a philosophy, in the widest sense of that term, 
which leaves out Christ, and eliminates from itself the 
Christian element, is like a planetary system without a 
central sun, a mere series of vortices without a uniting 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 



273 



and controlling centre. And as the increased study of 
physical science is leading its votaries to what has been 
termed "an overpowering consciousness of a vast unity 
of plan, and of the continuity of general laws," so the 
deeper study of God's w r ord, the world's true philosophy, 
leads its students to see one grand centre of life, of force, 
of truth, of unity in Jesus; and beholds, under all its 
ten thousand forms, and phases, the continuity of the 
great and eternal moral laws of God's kingdom, which 
underlie alike the word and the works of our divine 
Creator. Philosophy has found out many truths, but 
not the great foundation truths of God's existence, and 
attributes, and grace; and man's fall, and helplessness, 
and need of a Saviour. These things philosophy can 
not teach. How should we thank God, then, that in 
His holy word, He has revealed Himself to us, as to His 
essence, His attributes, His grace, and has made know^n 
to us, our divine origin, our self-induced fall, our hope, 
and our Saviour in Jesus Christ! Truly, "the wisdom 
of the world is foolishness with God." Truly, "the 
w r orld by wisdom knew not God." But what the sages 
of Greece could not tell us, St. Paul did reveal. What 
all the schools of philosophy for thousands of years, 
whether in Egypt, in Persia, in Greece, or in Kome, 
failed to bring to light, has been brought to light in 
the gospel ; and we are left without excuse, if, from this 
land of light, and this era of light, and in the very re- 
vealed presence of the Father of lights, and before the 
bright shillings of Him who hath declared, " I am the 
light of the world " — if with all this illumination around 
us, we go down to everlasting darkness, and lie down 
self-destroyed, in everlasting sorrow. 

We learn from this speech of St. Paul, that repentance 
18 



274 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 



is a personal duty, based on personal responsibility to 
God for personal sins. Heathen mythology and heathen 
philosophy, knew nothing of sin, as the alienation of the 
heart from God. In all the writings of ancient philoso- 
phers, there can not be found a single word which ex- 
presses the thought of sin, as it respects man; or of holi- 
ness, as it respects God. Its gods, and its philosophers, 
were themselves but splendid embodiments of sin ; and 
the influences which went forth from such deities, and 
such teachers, were only to reproduce in the circles of 
daily life, the crimes and immoralities which filled the 
halls of the gods on Olympus ; or the schools of the Porch 
and the Grove. It is the religion of Jesus Christ only, 
which sets each man apart from his fellow, and makes 
him stand up alone, and in the solitariness of his own 
individuality, give " account of himself unto God." It 
is the religion of Jesus Christ only, which measures 
moral character, with the unerring lines and in the un- 
erring balances of the divine law. It is only as we 
truly comprehend and act upon this simple truth, that 
" sin is a transgression of the law," — and that man is per- 
sonally responsible to God for keeping that law, and will 
by and by be certainly judged at the day of judgment, — 
that we shall have true views of God, and a true un- 
derstanding of our need of a Saviour, to cleanse an al- 
ready contracted guilt, and secure a needed and justi- 
fying righteousness. 

Lastly, there is brought before us in the closing words 
of the apostle, the central figure — the Divine Being, on 
whom all hinges and in whom all blessings converge 
and diverge. St. Paul does not speak of Jesus by name ; 
it was prudent, under the circumstances, not to do so; 
but he yet brings Him forward, and that too in two 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 



275 



fundamental aspects — as one raised from the dead, and 
as the future Judge of the world. 

In Jesus Christ, then, and in Him only, we find a 
clear knowledge of the one living and true God; for 
God is revealed to us only in the face of J esus Christ. 
In Jesus the God-man, and in Him alone, the true dig- 
nity and glory of a perfect manhood, holy, harmless, un- 
defined, separate from sinners, fully appears. Through 
the blood of the common atonement, Jesus made the 
blood relationships of nature more sacred, by the blood 
relationship of the cross. In Jesus only does the world 
find its bond of living unity, amidst diversities of lan- 
guage, races, and countries; and in Him alone a uni- 
versal fraternity, by allying us through Him, to a com- 
mon Father in heaven. In Jesus only can the thirst 
of the soul for that which is true, beautiful, and good, 
be slaked ; for He alone can fill its capacities, and sat- 
isfy its desires. In Jesus only do we find a divine Sav- 
iour, able, and willing, "to save to the uttermost all 
who come unto God through Him "; and "there is none 
other name under heaven given among men, whereby 
we must be saved." In Jesus only do we find a Con- 
queror of death and the grave, for He is the "Kesur- 
rection and the Life." In Jesus only do we find our 
future Judge; for He is the Judge of quick and dead. 
How all religion, all morality, all true philosophy, all 
sound social science, all just law, finds its centre in 
Jesus! And how has the preaching of Jesus and the 
resurrection, displaced a false religion, and a vain phi- 
losophy, and the murky immoralities, and the social er- 
rors, and the crying injustice, which have so long af- 
flicted the world! And as this doctrine of Jesus and 
the resurrection advances ; so will truth, and right, and 



276 



IN ATHENS ALONE. 



holiness, and peace, and love; rule more and more in 
heart and home, in church and state, until to the "name 
that is above every name " " every knee shall bow, and 
every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father." 

Beloved, have we made this Saviour our Saviour ? It 
is not enough that in our minds we surround Him as 
with a nimbus of glory, and accord to Him the worship 
of enthroned, or even infinite intellect; we must have 
such personal relations to Him, as shall make us em- 
brace Him as our personal Saviour, who loved us, and 
gave Himself for us: who died that we might live, and 
who lives that we may not die. Only as our lives are 
"hid with Christ in God," only as Christ is " formed in 
us the hope of glory," only as we "become new creat- 
ures in Christ Jesus," only as we "are buried with 
Christ by baptism into His death," and rise with Him 
to "newness of life"; only thus can Jesus Christ be our 
Saviour from sin, and our resurrection to eternal life. 



XXIII. 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 

" Hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the 
wrath of the Lamb." — Revelation vi. 16. 

The strength of language is often in proportion to its 
simplicity. However sublime an idea may be, if it is 
overlaid with many words, it loses much of its power, 
and becomes obscure. All great thoughts should be 
simply clad. Like the master-pieces of ancient sculp- 
tors, they should stand before us nude in unadorned 
strength and beauty ; or, with just that drapery of 
words, which will best set off native grandeur. Such 
thoughts infix themselves in the mind, and become 
powerful in shaping human character. Remarkably is 
this power of simple thought seen in the Bible. Not 
all the writings of uninspired men, show such sublime 
thought, in such simple garb; such matchless glory, 
sketched with such few, yet vivid words. 

St. John especially, though he tells us of the wonder- 
ful visions of Patmos, and describes the scenes of the 
upper world ; yet does it in few, but well-fitting words. 
There are no swollen periods, no attempt at word-paint- 
ing. We look through his writings, as we look through 
plate-glass; seeing clearly the idea he would have us 
see, without being aware of the medium through which 



278 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 



it is beheld. This self-forgetting style, this artlessness, 
this naturalness of expression, impart to his writings a 
peculiar charm, and give to his ideas peculiar force. 

The passage from which the words of the text are 
taken is descriptive of the effects of opening by the 
Lamb, of the sixth seal; where St. John, in a few terse 
master-strokes, sketches the state of things consequent 
on the crushing of pagan Kome, and the establishment 
on its ruins of a Christian empire. The sixth seal is 
one of the seven seals which fastens up the book-roll in 
the hand of God, which no one in heaven or earth could 
open, but the Lamb. This book-roll, "written within and 
without," contained a history of the Church through all 
coming time; divided into periods represented by the 
symbols of the several seals, and the events which trans- 
pired as each was opened. In order to understand what 
is meant by the "wrath of the Lamb," we must some- 
what unfold the nature of the seal under which this 
wrath is manifested, and the nature and effects of the 
wrath itself. 

It was under the sixth seal that this wrath was seen. 
That seal is thus described by St. John: "And I beheld 
when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a 
great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth 
of hair, and the moon became as blood ; and the stars of 
heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her 
untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind, 
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled 
together; and every mountain and island were moved 
out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the 
great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and 
the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free 
man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 



279 



mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall 
on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on 
the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the 
great day of His wrath is come ; and who shall be able 
to stand ? " 

This represents a period of intense commotion, con- 
sternation, and despair. The commotion is represented 
by a " great earthquake," as if the world was shaken by 
some violent internal convulsion; so great, that king- 
doms deep-rooted as mountains; and dynasties, as fast 
anchored as the isles ; were moved out of their places by 
the throes of some popular revolution. By the sun be- 
coming u black as sackcloth of hair," and " the moon as 
blood," is indicated a period of universal mourning and 
darkness. By " the stars falling from heaven " is em- 
blemized the dethroning of kings and princes, who are 
spoken of often in Scripture, under the figure of stars, 
and who under the force of some hurricane blast of 
politics, would be shaken out of their seats of power "as 
a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken 
of a mighty wind." By the heavens " departing as a 
scroll " is indicated the rolling together and removal, of 
that firmament of political power which, like the heaven, 
is stretched out over all nations; and in which, princes 
and rulers are set as suns, and moons, and stars — the 
greater and the lesser lights to rule the day and night 
of human and national being. These symbols combined 
make indeed a most terrific display; as if everything 
beneath, and around, and above man, was breaking up, 
and passing away, amidst the earthquakes, and tem- 
pests, that shook, and swept over, the world. We find 
just such a state of things in the final conflict of Chris- 
tianity with pagan Eome, commencing indeed with a 



280 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 



literal earthquake, which occurred on the morning of 
the 25th of July, 365, which shook the greater part 
of the Koman world. So astonished and terrified were 
the subjects of Rome at this great catastrophe, that, as 
Gibbon says, they regarded it "as the prelude only to 
still more dreadful calamities, and their fearful vanity 
was disposed to confound the symptoms of a declin- 
ing empire, and a sinking world." From that year, 365, 
began a series of wars, disasters, uprooting of nations, 
dethroning of kings, cutting down of rulers, shakings 
of the people, changes of governments, which in the 
extent of their desolation were well symbolized by a 
blackened sun, by a bloody moon, by the falling stars, 
by a rolled-together and departing heaven. 

The consternation which these commotions produced 
is shown from the conduct of the rulers and subjects. 
St. John says, "The kings of the earth, and the great 
men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the 
mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man, 
hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mount- 
ains." This surely evidences intense alarm and dismay: 
a consternation affecting all classes, from the king to the 
subject; every grade of society being filled with alarm, 
and all seeking refuge in secret places on the earth. 

This aptly describes the agitations that pervaded all 
classes in the period signalized as that which beheld 
the downfall of paganism, and the establishing of the 
religion of Jesus Christ, when "army after army, em- 
peror after emperor, were routed, and fled, and perished 
before the Cross and its warriors." 

The cause of this consternation is stated to be the 
" wrath of the Lamb" and the effect which it produces, 
is such utter despair, that these kings, and great men, 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 



281 



and rich men, and chief captains, "said to the mount- 
ains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of 
Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath 
of the Lamb : for the great day of His wrath is come, 
and who shall be able to stand ? " 

At first sight it seems strange that all these kings, 
and chieftains, and warriors, aye, and all ranks of so- 
ciety should be afraid of the " wrath of a Lamb," and 
it is a singular epithet which is introduced here, "the 
wrath of tlie Lamb ! " It would seem to have been more 
congruous to have said, the wrath of the Lion of the 
tribe of Judah ! We never hear of the wrath of a lamb. 
In all ages and lands, the lamb is an emblem of inno- 
cence and peace ; — as tender as a lamb, as gentle as a 
lamb, as patient as a lamb, as harmless as a lamb, are 
terms used every day; and with a full recognition of 
their truth and propriety. Wrath seems as foreign to 
a lamb, as gentleness is to a lion; and no writer, an- 
cient or modern, ever speaks of the ivrath of a lamb. 
Why then does St. John thus conjoin them ? and why, 
if he must speak of the wrath of Christ, does he not link 
it with some other phase of His character, rather than 
with its lamb-like aspect ? 

Before we answer this question, let us see what it was 
that paganism was fighting against, and what was the 
particular phase or aspect of the religion of Jesus, in 
which seemed to reside its conquering force. 

Paganism was fighting against a new religion. A re- 
ligion founded, to human eyes, by an outcast crucified 
Jew, in a remote province of Eome; promulgated at 
first, by ignorant fishermen and publicans, raising itself 
against every other religion on earth; and claiming to 
be the sole true religion, for the whole human race. 



282 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 



The religion of Christ demanded that all other religions, 
of whatever name, should be dissolved, and perish — that 
all men, from the rising to the setting of the sun, should 
receive it as the God-devised religion of the human 
family. These bold claims it quietly, yet firmly, as- 
serted. These claims, at once provoked the rage, and 
malice, and persecution of the friends of the old relig- 
ions, Jewish and pagan; but still it never relaxed its 
claim, always presented it, and spurned compromise, or 
touch even, with any other creed. How did it enforce 
these claims? by the sword? No: by learning? No: 
by state favor ? No : by political craft ? No. How then ? 
By ever presenting and holding up the blood of Christ as 
of a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; and 
by ever proclaiming "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth 
us from all sin." It was the story of this blood-shed- 
ding, told in the gospels, and epistles, preached by bish- 
ops and elders; spoken of by all who bore the Chris- 
tian name, — it was this blood-shedding, sprinkled on 
the heart, changing the life, purifying the soul, and by 
its wondrous efficacy making all whom it touched new 
creatures ; which changed the moral aspect of the world. 
It was the great doctrine of the atonement, the blood- 
redemption effected by Jesus Christ, that wrought out 
all this change. That, was the cardinal, as it was the 
central, doctrine of the gospel. That was the mighty, 
as it was the successful, combatant of paganism; and 
had that great blood-shedding been omitted, neither the 
marvellous life of Jesus, nor the fidelity of His apostles, 
nor the zeal of His followers, would have availed to 
establish or extend this Galilean sect. But what the 
sins of the world needed was blood, to wash them away, 
because "without shedding of blood there could be no 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 



283 



remission." Every thing depended on this blood; every- 
thing in earth and heaven, for man and for God, centred 
in this blood; and hence St. John, when he subsequently 
describes the conflict of Michael and his angels with 
the dragon and his angels, representing the pagan em- 
perors; he says of this war that the heavenly warriors 
" overcame him (the dragon-powers of earth), by the 
blood of the Lamb." But as this Lamb, "our Passover," 
was "sacrificed for us" on the cross, hence the cross 
became the synonym of all the precious benefits which 
flowed to our race from the blood of the Lamb, sacri- 
ficed on the cross. Accordingly we find, that the apos- 
tle several times uses the term "cross," as the concrete 
of all the blessings of salvation, boldly declaring, " God 
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 

As then it was the blood of Christ shed in sacrifice 
that was the real redeeming element in our salvation, 
and as that which emblemized Christ as a sacrifice was 
a Lamb, an emblem always associated with His aton- 
ing blood, we see the propriety of representing Him, 
against whom the kings of the earth, and the great 
men, and the chief captains were ineffectually warring, 
as a Lamb ; the symbol which expresses in its utmost in- 
tensity the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of the w r orld. 
The pagan chiefs of Eome, animated by the dragon, 
hated the blood of the Lamb. There lay the strength 
of the religion of Jesus. If that could be blotted out, 
it would go down to a level with other religions; hence 
against it was levelled the fiercest attacks, and the 
mightiest opposition. 

It is a most striking fact, account for it as we may, 
moved thereto either by a dream or by a vision, that 



284 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 



Constantine about the year 312, when he fought his 
great battle with Maxentius, adopted the cross as his 
military banner. It was emblazoned on the Labarum, 
or chief standard of the Roman armies. It was worn on 
the helmet of the emperor. It was embroidered on the 
shoulders of his troops; and Eusebius tells us, that on 
Constantine's entering Rome, in triumph, he ordered a 
cross to be placed in the right hand of the statue that 
was about to be raised to his honor. And of whom did 
this cross speak? Of Christ! But of Christ in what re- 
spect? As a sacrifice dying for sin, as the bleeding 
Lamb of Calvary. Ah, this is it ! It is the Lamb that 
is conquering, and the banner of the Lamb is borne by 
the armies of the first Christian emperor, as he repels the 
assaults which Maxentius, and Maximian, and Maximus, 
and Licinius, as representatives of the dragon, or pagan 
power, made upon the advancing Christianity. u When 
Maxentius went forth to battle, he went fortified by 
heathen oracles, as the champion of heathenism against 
the champion of the cross." " When Maximin was about 
to engage with Licinius, he made a vow to Jupiter that 
if successful, he would extirpate Christianity." When 
Licinius again was marching against Constantine he, in 
a public harangue before his soldiers, " ridiculed the 
cross, and staked the falsehood of Christianity on his 
success." Eusebius calls Licinius's war against Con- 
stantine a war against God. And it was in truth a war 
of pagan powers against Christ. It was a war, not of 
races, not for territories, not for crowns; but of religions. 
It was the dragon making war upon the Lamb. Hence 
the terror which the standard of the cross always in- 
spired ; so much so that even the skeptical Gibbon says, 
" Licinius felt and dreaded the power of the consecrated 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 



285 



banner; the sight of which, in the distress of battle, 
animated the soldiers of Constantine with invincible 
enthusiasm, and scattered terror and dismay through 
the ranks of the adverse legions." 

The despair of these representatives of pagan Eome 
after their defeats, is well represented by St. John when 
he writes they " said to the mountains, Fall on us, and 
hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, 
and from the face of the Lamb; for the great day of His 
wTath is come." They were not able to stand. They did 
seek to hide themselves away from the victorious Lamb. 
They did almost literally call upon the mountains and 
rocks to fall on them. The last years of Diocletian were 
passed amidst the horrors of remorse. Amidst the ter- 
rors of death Galerius sought refuge from his scourging 
conscience, by entreating the Christians whom he had 
outraged, to pray to the Lamb for him, for he was afraid 
to meet His face. Maximin was seized with a horrible 
wasting disease, which no medicines could stay, and his 
whole body was as if every part was subjected to the 
tortures which he had inflicted on others. Conscience 
accused him of his guilt, and in frantic agony he cried 
out, as the scenes of his persecutions were passing in 
bloody horror before his eyes, "It was not I who did it, 
it was others." At length his anguish forced him to 
confess his guilt, and every now and then he implored 
Christ to compassionate His misery. After four days of 
such torture he confessed himself vanquished, and gave 
up the ghost. Is or was Maximin alone in his sufferings ; 
all the accomplices of his crimes were made sharers in 
his torments. 

The complete establishment of Christianity by Con- 
stantine, and his edicts for the abolishing of sacrifices, 



286 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 



the demolition of temples and idols, and the toleration 
of the Christian religion alone, was to the defeated pa- 
gans a great day of the " wrath of the Lamb." It was 
the Lamb, the symbol of whose death was the cross, 
that had overcome them; it was the power of the Lamb 
that they dreaded. It was the wrath of the Crucified 
that they feared; and from which they vainly sought 
to escape ; for they felt that they could not stand before 
the face of the Lamb : and before it they did go down, 
one after the other, to weeping, and wailing, and gnash- 
ing of teeth. The Christian historian, Eusebius; and 
the skeptical historian, Gibbon ; alike testify to the truth 
of the apostle's words. 

But this "wrath of the Lamb" is not confined to those 
who are introduced to our notice in the vision of the 
sixth seal. It will be manifested towards all those who 
reject Christ as the atoning Lamb, who have no interest 
by faith in his sacrifice and in his righteousness. The 
treatment which unbelieving men give to the Lamb, is 
a justly provoking cause of his wrath; for it is not a 
wrath kindled by imaginary insults; it is not a wrath, 
breaking out with the ebullitions of a disordered mind ; 
but it is a wrath, and, oh ! this is one of the dreadful 
features of it, it is a wrath based on divine justice, 
which, while it puts the sword into the hand, puts no 
cloud of anger on the brow of Jesus. The love, that 
led Him to the stable, and to the cross, approves the 
wrath of the Lamb. The wisdom, that in the counsels 
of the Godhead devised this scheme of the atoning 
Lamb, sanctions the wrath of that Lamb. The holiness 
of God, whose purity could only be vindicated by the 
blood of that Lamb, justifies the wrath of that Lamb. 
All the perfections of God concur in this wrath ; for it 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 



287 



is wrath without sin, originating in the bosom of love, 
directed by wisdom, working through mercy, and exem- 
plifying at once the truth, the justice, the holiness of 
the Almighty. 

It is important to distinguish here, between wrath, 
which is the mere exhibition of an angry and perturbed 
mind, and that which is spoken of as pertaining to the 
Lamb. St. Paul classes " wrath" as one of the works of 
the old man, which we are carefully to put away; and in 
another place he says, "Let not the sun go down upon 
your wrath." This implies the exhibition of sinful pas- 
sion, arising from sinful impulses. But there is an anger, 
or wrath, as all sound ethical writers from the days of 
Aristotle agree, which is not only not a sin, but a virtue 
— a righteous indignation of sin, an anger provoked by 
a view of insulted holiness, and truth, and love; and 
directed by reason, against the daring infringer of the 
law or the gospel of God. It is of this right and holy 
anger that the Bible speaks when it says, " God is angry 
with the wicked every day," and when it exhorts us, 
u Be ye angry, and sin not." "Anger," says a quaint 
old writer (Fuller), "is one of the sinews of the soul; he 
that wants it hath a maimed mind, and with Jacob, 
sinew-shrunk in the hollow of his thigh, must needs 
halt." And a later and thoughtful writer, has truly 
said, "Nor can there be a surer and sadder token of an 
utterly prostrate moral condition, than the not being 
able to be angry with sin and sinners." 

To this divine, and therefore righteous, "wrath of the 
Lamb," all will be exposed who reject Christ as "the 
Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world." 
That wrath will not rouse up itself, until every means 
of grace which have been offered you proves in vain; 



288 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 



until by your persistent unbelief and rejection of every 
overture of mercy you shall, as it were, " trample under 
foot the Son of God," and "do despite" unto the Holy 
Ghost. They who, when pointed to the Lamb of God, 
look not; who, when urged to be washed in the blood 
of the Lamb, refuse; who, when exhorted to become 
followers of the Lamb, decline; who, when they gaze 
upon the memorials of His death, find in the dying 
Lamb no object of love and devotion; see in His sac- 
rifice no atonement, in His blood no propitiation, in 
His merits no righteousness, — all such shall feel " the 
wrath of the Lamb " ; feel it in their consciences, their 
memory, their affections, their minds ; and endure it, in 
their deathless souls, through the long and weary night- 
watches of that world of sorrow, on which no morning 
of joy ever dawns; and so they will forever wail out the 
doleful cry to the rocks and to the mountains, 44 Fall on 
us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on 
the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the 
great day of His wrath is come, and we are not able to 
stand ! " 

God grant that we may avoid this " wrath of the 
Lamb," by looking to Him in faith now, and accept- 
ing Him as our present, our divine, our only Saviour! 
Then shall we never feel His " w T rath," but ever rejoice 
in His love; and in the world to come we " shall follow 
the Lamb whithersoever He goeth," and go no more out 
from His presence forever." 



XXIV. 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
"Let me not see the death of the child." — Gen. xxi. 16. 

Thus spake an Egyptian mother in the day of her 
hopeless sorrow. Moved by the jealousy of Sarah, and 
directed also by the Lord; Abraham, on the complaint 
of his wife that Ishmael, the son of Hagar, was mocking 
Isaac, rose up early in the morning, and took bread and 
a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, and sent her 
away; and she departed and wandered in the wilder- 
ness of Beer-Sheba. It was a sad morning to her, 
when she was thus cast out from the patriarchal dwell- 
ing, and forced not only to leave a home where most 
of her life had been spent, but also to seek now with 
her only boy a new lodging place, a new master, and 
a new country. Her aim, doubtless, was to return to 
Egypt, but after entering the wilderness of Beer-Sheba 
she soon became entangled in its depths, and lost her 
way. The bottle of water which she bore upon her 
shoulder served but a short time to slake the thirst of 
herself and son ; and now that it was all gone, and no 
means at hand of refilling the empty cruse, her heart 
fainted within her. The heat of a Syrian sun, the toils 
of a Syrian wilderness, the pains of gnawing hunger, 
the cravings of a tongue, and mouth, and lips parching 
with thirst, broke down their spirits and their strength, 



290 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



and the poor mother, placing her feeble dying son under 
the shelter of one of the shrubs of the desert, left him 
there, and "went a great way off, for she said, Let me 
not see the death of the child : and she sat over against 
him, and lifted up her voice, and wept." Bond-woman 
though she was, she loved her son, and when she saw 
him failing through toil, and wilting with heat, and 
parching with thirst, and dying for want of bread and 
water; her maternal feelings became so strong that she 
turned away from beholding the last scene of her son's 
agony, saying in the bitterness of her soul, "Let me not 
see the death of the child." 

In this sentence Hagar spoke as nearly every parent 
would speak. Let one of our children become sick, let 
his case wax more and more doubtful, let^ medicine be 
of no avail, let the skill of the physician be at a stand, 
let life seem to be ebbing away, and the post of obser- 
vation grow darker every hour; at such a time what 
father, what mother would not utter the impassioned 
cry, " Let me not see the death of the child ! " 

There is no position of peril in which one of our chil- 
dren can be placed that will not at once awake anxious 
thought, and call out deep solicitude. We are keenly 
alive to all their physical suffering and exposure, and 
leave nothing undone to secure their health and com- 
fort. For our children's good, we will suffer almost any 
pain, endure any hardship, labor with unflagging zeal, 
bear any trials; and we consider no effort too great, no 
sacrifice too costly, no toil too drudging, no exposure 
too reckless, if we can thereby subserve their interests 
and secure for them honor, and competence, and health. 
It is right that we should feel thus. It is the natural 
outgrowth of those ties which God has linked with our 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



291 



inmost affections; and we can almost as soon forget our- 
selves, or be indifferent to the wants of our own bodies, 
as forget and be indifferent to, our beloved children. 

But though we all sympathize with Hagar in the dis- 
consolate outburst of her soul, "Let me not see the death 
of the child," though we all acknowledge the intense 
interest which we feel in our child's welfare, yet many 
of us are, after all, doing that to and for our child which 
is not merely sitting by, and seeing him die, but which 
is helping on his death, and making ready his grave. 

This may seem severe language, and sensitive minds 
may shrink from its roughness, but it is nevertheless 
true ; and my duty, as a watchman on the walls of Zion, 
is to sound this truth in the ears of parents, if so be, 
God blessing me, I can make them sensible of the dan- 
ger of our children, the responsibility for that danger 
which rests upon us, and the means which we should 
at once put in operation to avert the threatened evil, 
and secure the promised blessing. 

The proposition that I lay down is this. That a large 
number of parents in Christian lands are pursuing with 
their children a course of conduct that must inevitably 
w T ork out their spiritual death. While they shrink with 
horror from doing that which would cause them to see 
the physical death of their child; they are doing that 
which, unless checked, will procure the spiritual death 
of the child. So grave a charge must needs be sus- 
tained by ample proof. Alas ! the proof is too startling 
and overpowering to be either gainsayed or set aside. 

The infinite superiority of the soul to the body, and 
of eternity to time, being acknowledged, I proceed to 
remark, that one way in which parents, who cry out in 
view of physical dissolution, " Let me not see the death 



292 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



of the child," are yet accomplishing their child's spir- 
itual death, is, by showing the child, that they regard 
the body more than the soul. Every parent is anxious 
to secure for his child sound health, and they will put 
themselves to much trouble and expense to preserve this 
health or recover it if lost. At the first threatening of 
disease, they apply the most effective remedies, call in 
the best medical advice, and cease not in their remedial 
efforts until health returns, or death supervenes. 

Each parent also is desirous of giving his child proper 
food, and so unnatural is it for one to do otherwise, 
that our Saviour bases on this impossibility, one of His 
strongest reasons why men should trust their heavenly 
Father. "For what man of you," He says, "whom if his 
son ask bread, will he give him a stone? or if he ask an 
egg, will he give him a scorpion? or if he ask a fish, 
will he give him a serpent ? " Such a course of action 
is so unnatural, that instances of it can not be found in 
well regulated parental feelings. We restrain our chil- 
dren from partaking of that food which we fear will be 
injurious, we urge them to eat that w T hich is wholesome, 
and no affectionate father and mother is wholly indif- 
ferent as to the diet of their child. 

Parents are also desirous to clothe their children in a 
becoming manner, and how much pride, and display, 
and money, and folly is expended on the garments that 
are to cover them. These are objects of constant pa- 
rental thought, occupying hours and days, taxing mind 
and strength, and purse and time, to an extent we little 
imagine until we seriously attempt to estimate the sum. 

Parents also are desirous of making their children 
comely and attractive. To this end they are particular 
in checking any ungainly habits or evil propensities, 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



293 



and they aim to remove every little personal defect, or 
develop every personal grace, subjecting to their scru- 
tiny their walk, their posture, their complexion, their 
carriage, their whole system of habits; pruning the exu- 
berance of this, stimulating the undergrowth of that; 
curbing this trait, and spurring on that tardy excel- 
lence ; leaving nothing undone to give them beauty of 
features, grace of form, attractiveness of demeanor; in- 
stilling these things by repeated lessons and perpetual 
superintendence. This is what most parents will do for 
their children; and, to a reasonable extent, what they 
ought to do. But in doing this, we too often do it so 
as to impress the child with the superiority of the body 
to the soul, and in a large majority of cases the soul is 
thrust out of view as if it were a thing of naught. 

I proceed to remark, secondly, that we are procuring 
the spiritual death of our child by showing that child 
that we regard the things of time more than the things 
of eternity. This superior regard for temporal over eter- 
nal things is evidenced by the fact that we lay our 
plans so much for time, and few or none, perhaps, for 
eternity. The ends and aims that w r e seek for our chil- 
dren, and which we teach them to seek also, are mostly 
earthly; the getting of money, or a name, or high place, 
or literary renown, or social pre-eminence; and to the 
securing of these we toil and drudge through weary 
years in the hope that our child will reward all our 
efforts by one day gaining the coveted and sought-for 
blessing. 

The same thing is also shown by the sedulous manner 
in which we cultivate our temporal interests. Whatever 
concerns our earthly state and condition, whatever af- 
fects our business or profession, whatever influences our 



294 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



relations to our family, and social circle, and the neigh- 
boring community; is a subject of great interest, and we 
manifest our interest by thinking deeply, and plotting 
wisely, and acting judiciously, taxing all the faculties 
of mind, and all the powers of the body to advance 
■these interests. Our children are daily and almost hourly 
witnesses of this absorption of our mind by the things 
of time and sense. They hear our conversation, they 
perceive our changes of feeling, they note our devotion 
to business, to our profession, to politics, to letters, what- 
ever may be our calling ; their young hearts enter with 
zest into many of our schemes, they catch the infection 
of our worldliness, they grow up in the same earthiness 
of mind, and the present, and the worldly, and the tem- 
poral, engross the soul. Our children rarely hear us 
speak of religion, unless indeed to criticise a sermon, or 
the conduct of some lax member of the Church. We do 
not, as we should, aim to draw off their hearts, too read- 
ily, alas, linked with carnal views, from the scenes 
around, and fasten them on things above; we do not, 
as we ought, strive to win them to Christ, to secure for 
them a crown of righteousness, to make them the chil- 
dren of God. What these children shall be after death 
and throughout eternity, seldom employs our thoughts, 
and if circumstances force it upon our minds it is too 
often thrown out as unwelcome. The horizon of our 
thoughts, and plans, and hopes, touches the grave, and 
we are shutting down upon our children the same metes 
and bounds, thus excluding from their minds as far as 
our precept and example go, the outlying interests of 
the soul which are to occupy the whole field of eternity. 
Thus, those who would in view of physical danger, cry 
out in agony, " Let me not see the death of the child," 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



295 



are doing that which will necessarily lay the soul of the 
child in the winding-sheet of eternal death. How many 
budding hopes that might have bloomed in heaven lie 
blasted beneath the golden sandal of wealth ! How 
many eternal interests are stranded by the courted gale 
of popular renown ! How many a soul has been made to 
sell its immortal birthright for some earthly mess of pot- 
tage, an eligible marriage, or a fashionable establish- 
ment ! And when the secrets of all hearts shall be dis- 
closed at the judgment seat, what amazing revelations 
will then be made, of the sacrifices of children's souls 
which parents were willing to make, in order to gain 
some present end or some worldly advantage ? 

A third way in which parents accomplish the spiritual 
death of their children, is by showing them that they 
regard the favor and opinions of men, more than the 
favor and law of God. We are very careful to instruct 
our sons and daughters in all the proprieties and con- 
ventional rules of good society. We teach them to shun 
whatever is not in accordance with the spirit and regu- 
lations of the fashionable world. We aim to make them 
favorites in their respective circles, and to win the good 
opinions of their fellows. In all this we are governed 
by the opinions of the people among whom we move ; 
we catch up their views and spirit, and shape our own 
and our children's views accordingly. The child soon 
learns that these are our standards ; he adopts our ways 
of thinking, looks to these alone as rules of conduct, and 
as in the education of the child all reference to God's 
law and favor, is well nigh excluded, so the child ex- 
cludes God, and heaven, and hell from his thoughts and 
plans, he contracts his soul within the pent-up lines of 
an earthly existence, and makes his immortal spirit that 



296 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



might dwell and shine among angelic beings in glory, 
drudge as a menial in the service of a dying body, and 
all through the precepts and examples which we per- 
haps have, year by year, brought to bear upon his mind 
and heart. What a Moloch is human opinion! How 
many thousands of children are cast into its burning 
arms, and sacrificed to the favor or frowns of a deceit- 
ful world, while the deafening din of fashion's giddy 
throng drowns the shrieks of agony which burst from 
their spirits as they die without hope, without pardon, 
without Christ! The judgment day will reveal that 
through timidity in braving the opinions of godless 
friends ; or through fear of losing the favor of fashion- 
able associates ; or through dread of being put under the 
ban of some particular clique or circle ; the soul of many 
a child has been left by its parents to perish forever. 

Lastly: we aid and abet the spiritual death of the 
child by our irreligious example, both in doing that 
which is positively wrong, and in neglecting to do 
what is as positively required. Young as our child is, 
it has learned to join together precept and practice, and 
if we are professors of religion, it has put along side of 
this profession, our daily walk and conversation, and is 
perpetually drawing inferences from the one to the other, 
either for, or against, the truth which we profess. Un- 
curbed tempers, ill-governed passions, unbridled tongues, 
uncharitable words, want of meekness, and gentleness, 
and truth, lack of sobriety of mind, and kindliness of 
heart, the absence of that strict conscientiousness which 
should mark all our actions, neglect of the Bible and of 
prayer, disregard of the Lord's day, and the ordinances 
of grace, irrepressible worldliness in ever dwelling upon 
" what shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and where- 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



297 



withal shall we be clothed," are leaving indelible im- 
pressions upon the minds of onr offspring. So that, 
copying our habits of thought, speech, and action, our 
child's character in its essential characteristics, may be 
formed for eternity before its mind is able to receive the 
precepts which, for consistency's sake, perhaps we oc- 
casionally teach. 

And not only are the positive errors and influences 
working out the child's death, many are still further 
aiding the destruction by neglecting altogether to teach 
the child the way of salvation. There are multitudes 
of parents whose children even would never know that 
they are professors of religion, did they not see them 
now and then remain to the Holy Communion. They 
never think of taking their children into their closets, 
and there kneel down with them before God, and give 
them to Jesus Christ. They never think of urging upon 
them the necessity of now making their peace with God. 
They are voluble on all other topics, silent on this; 
alive to all other interests of their children, dead to this ; 
and the child sees the difference, and sets down all re- 
ligion as being like its father s or its mother's religion, 
a thing to put on on Sundays and Fast days — a garb to 
be worn in certain society, and under solemn circum- 
stances, and then to be put off as a robe useless and 
absolutely in the way in daily private life. Could we 
who are parents take any one day of our lives, and care- 
fully recalling all our acts, trace out the influence of 
each one on the moral character of our child, marking 
how each left its indelible impress for good or evil ; and 
could we go a step further and observe how our omis- 
sions of duty respecting them, our neglecting to pray 
with and for them, to talk to them, to lead them to Jesus, 



298 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



left as fearful ravages as our positive misdeeds, we should 
be amazed at the moulding power which, insensibly to 
ourselves, we put forth, and we should at the same time 
cease to wonder that so few children grew up in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord. On the contrary, 
each child snatched by the Holy Ghost as a brand from 
the burning, would be an astounding miracle of grace, 
all the more marvellous because of the immense counter- 
acting influences of parents and home. 

I believe that the moral character of children, to a 
great extent, depends on parents. God has placed us 
at the head-springs of their minds. The responsibility 
of this position even an angel might shrink from. Yet 
there we are. Our child is given to us with a blank 
and unformed mind that it may bear our inscriptions 
and our shaping. The babe of days grows up a child 
of months, passes through a youth of changing seasons, 
develops into a man of years, and through all these plas- 
tic periods is moulded by our example, instructed by 
our precepts, and made to take on its eternal character. 
For it is a startling fact that the great majority of con- 
versions to Christ take place under the year of manhood, 
so that each remove from that point of time, lessens the 
probabilities of their ever becoming Christians. 

Suppose that you gain for your children all that you 
desire; they have wealth, health, honor, happiness, and 
all desirable earthly good : you feel satisfied that your 
labor has not been in vain, and that you have not spent 
your strength for naught — is this worth the sacrifice 
you have made ? and in giving an immortal soul as the 
price of such earthly ends, have you not paid too dearly 
for your temporal and carnal gains? Is it not like 
Judas's thirty pieces of silver, "the price of blood," the 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



299 



shekels of a soul's betrayal to its fiendish adversary, 
and will not the time soon come, when houses, equipage, 
money, fashion, rank, every thing that earth has given 
in exchange for the child's soul will be cast from you as 
Judas did his cursed coin, saying as he did so, " I have 
sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." 

Father, mother, parents, what is it in your child that 
you love? Is it beauty? time will erase it. Is it grace 
of person? age will bow that form, and wilt those 
limbs. Is it accomplishment of mind and heart? one 
touch of the finger of mania will unseat- that mind, one 
stroke of sickness still that heart. And is it so, that we 
only love that which is ephemeral and perishing ? and 
that all our parental affections are clasping themselves 
like the ivy around the crumbling and decaying flesh 
and blood of our offspring? Do we love in them that 
which will never die — that which constitutes their high- 
est claim upon our care — their souls ? Our lips say yes, 
but our lives, alas ! too often say no. Oh ! before it is 
too late, let us aim to look at our child as an immortal 
being, and teach him that he has a soul, teach him that 
there is an eternity, teach him that he is a sinner, but 
that there is a Saviour, and lead him to that Saviour 
for pardon and peace. Teach him to love his Bible, to 
pray, to wait in God's house and on God's ordinances, to 
consecrate himself and all that he has to Christ. Teach 
him these things by your personal example of weaned- 
ness from the world, and personal holiness of life, by 
your daily precepts distilling in the heart, like the gen- 
tle dew. Let every hour of our life, and every act of 
our life, proclaim aloud that we regard the salvation of 
our child's soul as the first great aim and object of his 
existence. Then, God blessing us, though we may be 



300 



PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



called to see "the child die," the death that must pass 
on all the living, we will not be called to see him die 
that other and infinitely more dreadful death, the sec- 
ond death ; but will be enabled to rejoice that our child 
when it passes from its earthly home and its earthly 
parents; has entered on its new life, that it has left for- 
ever a region of sin and woe, and gone to dwell forever 
in a land of holiness and love in Heaven. 



XXV. 



IS THERE REASON OR PROFIT IN PRAYER? 

< 1 What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? and what profit should 
there be if we pray unto Him? " — Job xxi. 15. 

Thus spake sceptical men in the days of Job. Thus 
speak sceptical men now. The doctrine that prayer has 
power with God and secures special blessings for men, 
has ever been assailed by the rationalist as contrary to 
reason ; and by some few scientists as contrary to the law 
of nature. The argument of the former is — that God is 
too great, and too far removed above us, and too much 
occupied with the vast movements of suns and systems, 
to take heed to the requests of the little creatures of this 
little world. The argument of the other is — that nature 
being organized and governed by fixed and immutable 
laws, no amount of human petition can cause God to 
deviate from his uniform law, for the gratification of 
individual requests. 

Both these lines of objection start from a wrong basis, 
and each takes for granted a condition of things which 
we are not willing to concede. 

We do not grant to the rationalist, that the great God 
is so removed from us by reason of the vast universes 
which He governs, that He can not attend to the little 
wants of the dwellers on this globe; for the very mi- 
nuteness of God's creative power shows the minuteness 



302 IS THERE REASON OR PROFIT IN PRAYER? 



of His superintending power. The presence of God in 
the lower and almost invisible forms of life, as seen only 
through the microscope, proves that nothing is too small 
to be beneath His notice, and daily personal supervision 
and government ; for the same God who gave the laws 
of life to the infusoria of the microscope, gave the laws 
of life and motion to the planetary systems of the tel- 
escope. This fact the Bible distinctly asserts, when it 
assures us that He who " in the beginning created the 
heaven and the earth," is the same God who gives beau- 
ty to the lilies of the field, who notes the fall of each 
sparrow, and who numbers "the very hairs of our head." 

We do not grant to the scientist, that the laws of na- 
ture are so uniform and immutable, that, therefore, the 
prayer of a human being can not avail to cause any de- 
viation in those laws; because, what are called "the 
laws of nature" are but the actings of God's will upon 
the works of God's hand. Until we have ascertained 
exactly how God's will works in and through an instru- 
mentality which He has ordained, we are not able to say 
whether prayer itself may not be a recognized factor in 
the workings of nature, just as any other agent, such as 
light, heat, or gravitation. Until we know all of God's 
will, we can not say that prayer is against His will, and 
the assertion that it is so, is presumptuous ignorance. 
God has not left us to mere inferences as to what His 
will is on this subject. We have among the various 
recognized and authenticated revelations of God's will, 
His distinct command that we should pray to Him. His 
distinct promises of good to those who do pray, and the 
divine example of Christ Himself who at times spent 
whole nights in prayer to God. 

If prayer is unscientific, then is our religion unscien- 



IS THERE REASON OR PROFIT IN PRAYER? 303 



tific; for one of its essential elements is prayer; — then 
is our Bible unscientific ; for that is full of exhortations 
to prayer; — then is our blessed Lord, He of whom it 
is written that "in Him dwelleth all the treasures of 
wisdom and knowledge," unscientific; for He was em- 
inently a man of prayer; — then is the Holy Ghost, the 
Spirit "who searcheth all things even the deep things 
of God," and who is specially revealed to us as the Spirit 
of grace and supplication, unscientific; for it is He who, 
when we know not what to pray for, "maketh inter- 
cession for us with groanings which can not be uttered " ; 
— then is God Himself, I speak it reverently, unscien- 
tific, because He has revealed Himself as a prayer-hear- 
ing and a prayer-answering God. 

The question of prayer, is not a question of natural 
science; it comes within the domain of moral science. 
The very men who object most to prayer on scientific 
grounds, are guilty of the absurdity of testing a moral 
question by scientific rules. They take the question out 
of the realm of morals, and seek to test it by the criteria 
of scientific investigation. Such a practice is destruct- 
ive of all fair dealing and opposed to all sound laws of 
science. 

Moral questions must be judged of by moral evidence; 
mathematical questions by mathematical evidence; bo- 
tanical questions by botanical evidence. 

Prayer, is a question that lies entirely between God 
and the soul of man, and is consequently quite removed 
from the field of scientific research, and out of the re- 
gion of scientific analysis. The points we desire to be 
satisfied upon, are these : Is the soul of man so consti- 
tuted as to make prayer an essential element of his spir- 
itual being ? and, secondly, Has God made known to us 



304 IS THERE REASON OR PROFIT IN PRAYER? 



His mind and will in reference to prayer ? To the first 
question, we have but to look into our hearts to find an 
ever-present answer. Man's soul is made for prayer. It 
seems to be a part of its nature to seek aid, protection, 
and comfort from something higher and greater than it- 
self. There is this yearning in every bosom. It is the 
instinct of universal humanity. There can not be found 
in the entire human family, a man, who, in time of alarm 
or danger, does not in some manner seek the interposi- 
tion of a higher power. Upon this instinct, are founded 
nearly if not all the religions of the world; for the prayer 
element of religion is that which is its controlling ele- 
ment; and no religion has yet been discovered where 
supplication to some superior power or being, does not 
exist as an important part of that religion. When we 
look then at the universality of this instinct for supplica- 
tion, and learn that only by prayer (and that too at times 
by " groanings which can not be uttered," £ e., by the 
yearnings and longings of the soul which are too deep, 
too strong, too tumultuous to be formulated into words) 
can the higher aspirations of the soul find their outlet; 
are we not warranted in saying that the soul is as much 
made for prayer as the eye is made for light, the ear for 
sound, and the lungs for air ? Most assuredly we are ! 
Prayer and the soul are fitted to each other just as life 
is fitted to the human body, so that it is indeed true 

"Prayer is the Christian's vital breath." 

As to the second question, Has God made known to 
us His mind and will in reference to prayer ? I answer 
emphatically, Yes. The Bible, which is the only book 
that reveals to us the will of God, is full of His thoughts 
on this point. Here let us remember that this volume, 



IS THERE REASON OR PROFIT IN PRAYER? 305 

the Bible, is God's voice speaking to us in the world of 
morals and in the domain of spiritual life; just as much, 
and just as authoritatively, as the volume of nature is 
God's voice speaking to us in the world of material 
things, and in the domain of physical life. If the man 
of science plants himself on the authority of the one, 
we plant ourselves on the authority of the other; with 
this important difference, that we recognize both as the 
manifestations of the one living and true God. His 
physical characteristics shining through the works of 
nature, as revealed to the scientist ; His spiritual attri- 
butes, shining through the words of Revelation, as made 
known to us by holy men of old " who wrote as they 
were moved of the Holy Ghost." 

But, leaving argument, let us go to facts. Each per- 
son of the ever-blessed Trinity has made known His will 
on the subject of prayer. 

God the Father, in a multitude of passages, direct 
and indirect, shows that He hears and answers prayer. 
He declares that "His ears shall be attent unto the 
prayer" of His people; that the prayer of the priests, 
the Levites, and the people "came up to His holy dwell- 
ing-place even unto heaven;" that His house "shall be 
an house of prayer for all nations." God the Son, com- 
mands us to pray — taught us by a special form how to 
pray, and what to pray; set us the example of prayer; 
told us that certain blessings could only be obtained by 
prayer, and assured us, that "whatsoever we should ask 
in His name, He would give it unto us." God the Holy 
Ghost, is specially made known to us as " the Spirit of 
grace and supplication"; as "the Spirit that helpeth our 
infirmities" in prayer; as the being who Himself maketh 
intercession for us. 
20 



306 IS THERE REASON OR PROFIT IN PRAYER? 



Here then, in brief, we have the clear and definite 
utterances of the triune God on the subject of prayer. 
And now then who is to be believed — the scientist, with 
his finite mind, his span of time, and his narrow knowl- 
edge; or the Infinite, the Eternal, the Omniscient God? 
Who shall be believed — the philosopher, who is not able 
to unfold the full principles of his own life; or the Divine 
Eedeemer who so knew the nature and the w^orth of the 
soul as to redeem it with His own blood? Who is to be 
believed — the man who can master only a small segment 
of the small circle of human knowledge (for that is all 
that the most profound scholars and thinkers can do), 
or the Holy Ghost, that Divine Spirit, "which searcheth 
all things, even the deep things of God," whose special 
function, as the Spirit of truth, is "to guide you into all 
truth"? These questions furnish their own answers. 
And now the question comes back to us, "What profit 
shall we have if w T e pray unto Him?" To answer this 
question aright, we must go to Him who first instituted 
prayer, and see what promises He annexed to its due 
performance. In the Bible, where God's directions and 
promises are fully recorded, we find words like these: 
"Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet 
speaking, I will hear." "Ye shall go and pray unto me, 
and I will hearken unto you." Thus saith the Lord, 
Call upon me and I will answer you." "Whosoever 
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered." 
"The Lord is rich in mercy to all them that call upon 
Him." "Thou art good and ready to forgive, and plen- 
teous in mercy to all them that call upon Him." "He 
will be gracious at the voice of thy cry, he will answer 
thee." " In every thing by prayer and supplication let 
your requests be made known unto God." "Pray with- 



IS THERE REASON OR PROFIT IN PRAYER? 307 

out ceasing." "The effectual fervent prayer of a right- 
eous man availeth much." These verses, which are but 
a sample of what the Scriptures say upon the subject of 
prayer, show what great benefits and blessing result 
from it; guaranteed to us by a God who can not lie, by 
a God who is unchangeable, and all of whose promises 
are u yea, and amen in Christ Jesus." 

We may answer the question of the text, " What profit 
shall we have if we pray unto Him," by appealing to the 
personal experience of multitudes of all past ages. 

Here history and biography come in as witnesses to 
the profit and value of prayer. When a large number 
of scientific men, who have had ample time and oppor- 
tunity for rigid examination, affirm with united voice, 
any given scientific truth; we readily accept the truth 
on the authority of competent men able to verify it by 
full observation. Thus, all our astronomical knowledge 
is based on the telescopic observations and mathematical 
calculations of a very few observers and calculators, scat- 
tered here and there in a few observatories. The com- 
mon mind is not capable of testing the truth of these 
observations and calculations ; yet the world readily ac- 
cepts them; and our clocks, and our almanacs, and our 
arrangement of civil time, and all our navigation at sea, 
and a hundred other things, are based on these observa- 
tions of these few star-gazers. Here the testimony of a 
few, is received and acted upon by the many ; because 
they have confidence in the ability of these few, to speak 
upon this subject. In this case the whole question 
comes down to one of competent witnesses; and indeed 
every assertion of scientific men, on scientific subjects, 
is resolvable into a matter of competent observers, and 
competent testifiers. Apply this test to prayer. Call in 



308 IS THERE REASON OR PROFIT IN PRAYER? 



witnesses, competent witnesses, men whose testimony is 
unimpeachable ; men who have had large personal ex- 
perience and observation on this subject; men who have 
witnessed its effects on families, tribes, and kingdoms. 
Summon these witnesses not from one land, but from all 
lands; not from one nation, but from all nations; not 
from one age, but from all ages; not from one class of 
society, but from all classes ; gather up their united tes- 
timony and give it voice, and it is clear, uniform, and 
universal as to the comfort and profit of prayer. 

On this subject, we have this great advantage, that 
while the asserters and observers of any given scientific 
truth in any one department of natural science, are ne- 
cessarily few, and while the testimony of these few is 
often conflicting; on the subject of prayer, the number 
of witnesses to its profit is innumerable, and the unan- 
imity of their testimony is complete. Summon witnesses 
from the patriarchal dispensation, and Abraham "the 
father of the faithful " and " the friend of God " ; Isaac, 
through whom all the nations of the earth were to be 
blessed ; Jacob, who received the surname of Israel be- 
cause he wrestled with the angel and prevailed in prayer; 
Joseph the governor of all Egypt; — will each testify to 
the power and profit of prayer. Summon witnesses un- 
der the Mosaic dispensation, and Moses himself, the 
great lawgiver; and Joshua the great captain; and 
David the sweet psalmist of Israel; and Solomon the 
wisest of kings; and Elijah the prophet of fire; and 
Isaiah the evangelical prophet; — testify with one ac- 
cord, that there is joy and comfort and profit in prayer. 
Call up witnesses from the New Testament worthies, 
and a great cloud of witnesses rise up from almost 
every page, to assure us that prayer is a privilege and 



IS THERE REASON OR PROFIT IN PRAYER? 309 



a blessing. So that as a question of history, and obser- 
vation, the proof is ample to establish the doctrine, that 
prayer is in accordance with God's will and profitable 
to man. 

We can answer the question of the text, lastly, by 
appealing to the personal experience of the children of 
God now and here. This, of course, varies with individ- 
ual piety; yet there are certain common effects, which 
belong to all Christians who kneel before the mercy- 
seat. In looking back over our own religious history, 
how many instances rise up to the mind of temporal 
blessings ; either in the shape of direct mercies, or avert- 
ed evils, which we have received through prayer! How 
often, when threatened with calamities — personal, do- 
mestic, or social — has prayer dissipated the threatened 
trial, or enabled us to bear it in sweet submission ! How 
often in hours of sickness and sorrow has prayer like the 
breath of the morning driven away the murky cloud, 
or painted a rainbow on its bosom ! In every event of 
our lives, we are conscious that prayer has altered, 
moulded, guided, and controlled our doings. That the 
unseen, but really spiritual influences which prayer has 
called down upon us, have, as by a holy alchemy, turned 
the very evils which beset us into sources of joy, and 
made our very trials minister to our growth in grace. 
One of the most eminent of the scientists who has writ- 
ten against prayer, and who proposed what has been 
termed " a prayer gauge " to test the physical value of 
prayer, reduces all prayer in times of sorrow and dan* 
ger, to the " simple impulse to pour out the feelings in 
sound"; "similar in kind/' as has been said, "to the cry 
of the hare, when the greyhound is almost upon her; 
or the bleating of a sheep, that has lost her lamb ; or the 



310 IS THERE REASON OR PROFIT IN PRAYER? 



cry of a dog, under the lash. A voice convulsively sent 
out into space, whose utterance is a physical relief." Is 
this so? Has God thus mocked us? Tell me, thou 
mother, watching by the bed of a sick child ! Tell me, 
thou mourner, just bereaved of a beloved friend ! Tell 
me, thou child of God, struggling with poverty and 
trials! Tell me, thou disciple of Jesus in the hour of 
death ! — are thy cries, thy supplications, thy agonizing 
pleas for mercy, for light, for comfort, for acceptance, 
are they but "the simple impulse to pour out thy feel- 
ings in sound ? " Are your prayers but as the inarticu- 
late moanings of the brute creation? Every thing that 
is deep and true in our nature, rejects such a theory. 
We know by experience that it is not so. We feel that 
prayer at such times, is something more than a voice 
convulsively sent out into space, for securing physical 
relief. We know that prayer is but the vocalizing of 
deep, inner emotions of the soul ; — that the words thus 
uttered, have an ear expressly fitted to hear those cries, 
— the ear of the Lord of Sabaoth; and that He who 
bends His ear to listen to the prayer of the lowliest, will 
answer those prayers in the fulness of His divine grace, 
and with all the tenderness of a father's love. 

We sometimes learn the value of a blessing by its 
being taken away, even as the poet says — 

"How blessings brighten, as they take their flight!' 

How better, for example, could we show the value 
of light, than by supposing that there were no sun or 
moon or stars ? or the inestimable worth of water, than 
by imagining that all the fountains and rivers were dried 
up ? How vividly and practically would this withdrawal 
of light, and water, make us realize, as we never felt be- 



IS THERE REASON OR PROFIT IN PRAYER? 311 



fore, the value of these common and every-day bless- 
ings; which, because they are so common, and so braided 
in with all the thoughts and words and deeds of our life, 
are too often unheeded or undervalued. 

So what would be the moral condition of the world 
were there no prayer ? Suppose, that in all our churches, 
the service of prayer should be hushed ! that in all our 
households, the family altar should be abolished! that 
no human lips should utter a personal supplication ! No 
prayer in times of sickness, danger, or death; none in 
days of trial and sorrow and bereavement ; none in hours 
of prosperity and gladness ; — why what a world would 
this be ! How long think you that our religion would 
exist without prayer? Shut off from God, from the mer- 
cy-seat, from communion with Christ, the soul would 
soon be a shrivelled, hopeless, godless spirit, fettered 
to earth; its wings of prayer broken, and its heaven- 
ward soarings forever restrained. Blessed be God, we 
are not left to this condition of hopeless wretchedness. 
We have the pledged promises of God; the evidence of 
all past history since the creation ; the testimony of pa- 
triarchs, prophets, kings, priests, apostles, martyrs, con- 
fessors, for nearly six thousand years; and the individual 
experience of each Christian of the present day; concur- 
ring to establish the efficacy, and profit, of prayer. Hav- 
ing then a pray er - hearing God; a throne of grace to 
which we are invited to come "with boldness"; a divine 
Intercessor, before the mercy-seat on high, the Holy 
Ghost as the spirit of grace and of supplication ;— hav- 
ing these, let us hold fast our faith in prayer, and use it 
as a divinely appointed instrument for obtaining the 
best and noblest blessings, for the soul, and for the 
body ; for time and for eternity. 



By the Rev. PHILLIPS BROOKS. 



Sermons, 

ioth Thousand. i2mo. 20 Sermons. 380 pages , . , t , $1.75 

44 In the Sermons of PHILIPS BROOKS there is a charm it is difficult to 
describe. They have breadth and depth and argu ment, and yet with all, they 
are so simple and plain that a child could understand them. There seems at no 
time to be any studied effort, and yet there is rare word painting, and eloquence 
the most attractive, which touches alike the intellect and heart. These sermons 
are in many respects models, worthy of careful study. To the minister they are 
models of all it takes to make up a model sermon. To the layman who reads, 
they rehearse grand truths with a joyousness and freshness that make glad the 
heart. Mr. Brooks is aglow with Christianity, and he has the power of coming 
close to living men as he presents his subject lovingly, for their consideration and 
adoption. 1 ' — Inter-Ocean. 

"We emphatically apprise our readers that if they overlook this volume they 
will miss some of the freshest, most fervent, most truthful, most quickening, most 
comforting and helping religious discourses which life is likely to bring them. If 
all preaching were to be like this how we should all wish that great were the 
company of preachers ! " — Literary World. 

"The preacher's profound knowledge of the human heart, his sympathy with 
the state of the tempted, his intelligent appeals to experience, his fervent faith 
in the beneficence of Christ, his fresh and suggestive methods of presenting truth, 
— all these excellencies commend the book, and make it sure to occupy a place of 
usefulness in the world."— The Watchman. 

" We commend these Sermons heartily. They are living words of a living man 
to living fellow men, helpful alike to those who are at work and to those whose 
harder part it is to suffer or to wait." — The Living Church. 



Lectures on Preaching. 

Delivered before the Divinity School of Yale College in January and February, 

1877. 5th Thousand, umo. 281 pages $1.50 

11 These are admirable lectures. Nothing better of the kind, nothing-more really 
helpful, has ever appeared. No candidate for Holy Orders, no theological student, 
no clergyman, can read the first three lectures without being impressed with the 
solemnity and the blessedness of the preacher's work." — Churchman. 

41 We do not hesitate to say that they are of more practical value than any work 
of the sort we have ever seen. . . . It is a book to be read for the feeling it awak- 
ens, but feeling so lofty that it is one with wisdom and truth." — Literary World. 

" It is spiritually quickening, and no preacher can read it without having his 
ideas of preaching enlarged, and his desires for better attainment in his work in- 
creased. — Illustrated Christian Weekly. 

u No man, lay or clerical, who likes bright thoughts and clear artistic expression, 
can afford to neglect this volume." — N. Y. Sun. 

" Every page of the volume is replete with practical wisdom and sound common 
sense, and invites the careful reading of any minister who desires to avail himself 
of the results of the study of a mind keenly alive to the demands of the age, and 
the needs and influence of the ministry." — The Appeal. 

" Will be found as useful to young laymen as to young clergymen. Their coun- 
sels, with certain changes in detail, are as applicable to the pursuits of business 
life, in whatever vocation, as to the duties of the pastorate. It is a book we com- 
mend to every young man and woman desirous of efficient work and noble living." 



The Influence of Jesus. 

The Bohlen Lectures for 1879. In press. 
E. P. BUTTON «fc CO., Publishers, New York. 



Sermons, Doctrinal and Practical, 



i. 
ii. 
in. 

IV. 



VI. 



VII. 



VIII. 



IX. 



REV. MORGAN DIX, S.T. D., 

Rector of Trinity Church, New York, 

no. 25 Sermons. 340 Pages. $x. 75. 

CONTENTS : 



XI. 



Advent— The Prayer of Balaam. 

A d vent — Vision s. 

Christmas — The Mystery of 

the Holy Incarnation. 
Christmas — A Sermon of 

Childhood. 
Epiphany — Action, Prayer and 

Sorrow. 

Lent — True and False Repent- 
ance. 

Lent— The Place of Pain in the 
System of our Redemption. 

Lent — The Cross, the Measure 
and Condemnation of the 
World. 

Easter — The Morning of Eter- 
nity. 

Easter— Youth and Age in 
Christ. 

Ascension — Rashness and Irrev- 
erence in Modern Religion. 



XII. Whitsuntide — The Time 
Spirit and the Holy Ghost. 

XIII. Trinity— The Crown. 

XIV. Pleasure, Happiness and 

Duty. 
XV. Detraction. 

XVI. The Strife of Faith and Doubt 
in the Soul. 
XVII. The Pearl of Great Price. 
XVIII. Life's Battles. 
XIX. The Mirrors of Nature and 
Grace. 
XX. Unseen Teachers. 
XXI. The Rich and the Poor, Here 
and Hereafter. 
XXII. Sacrifice and Submission. 

XXIII. Coming to God by Love or by 

Fear. 

XXIV. The Image of God in Man. 
XXV. The Communion of Saints. 



[From The Churchman.] 

11 This volume will hold a very high rank among modern sermons. It exhibits 
very clearly, we think, what the standard of preaching in these times ought to be. 
The title describes them as 4 doctrinal and practical.' These terms, however, 
indicate not two different kinds of sermons, but what is far better, namely, the two 
qualities pervading each one. Some important truth is made the basis of each, 
and the preacher shows the bearings of such a truth on duty. There is here little 
of the fire and fervor that we sometimes meet with, and almost nothing of what 
might be called religious passion ; but there is the calm proclamation of things 
well worth our thinking about and remembering. Besides, these are the sermons 
that one will like better the oftener and the more carefully he reads them, and 
their goodness is not soon or easily exhausted." 

[From The Church Eclectic] 

"One of the favorable signs of the times, at least in England, we are told, is the 
great demand for devotional literature and for published sermons. We have seen 
nothing better adapted to develop such a taste and demand among us than this 
volume of plain, practical, parochial discourses, that are literally suited to every 
class and condition in life. Many English volumes of the kind are remarkable for 
their wordiness, and for either the paucity, or else the elementary character of 
their ideas. But here every sentence is freighted with the weightiest thought, and 
yet without the least tincture of obscurity, or even of complication or elaboration. 
The crystal clearness of style and perfect simplicity of language, in which Saxon 
English undefiled predominates, make this volume one that will go home to the 
understanding and the heart of all sorts and conditions of men. * * * 
We commend this volume to the clergy as a fine study for sermonizing." 

E. P. BUTTON <fc CO., Publishers, New York. 



By the Rt. Rev. F. D. HUNTINGTON, S.T.D., 

Bishop of Central New York. 

Christ in the Christian Year, 

AND IN THE LIFE OF MAN. Sermons for Laymen's Reading. (Advent to 
Trinity.) i2mo, 404 pages j x . so 

Sermons for the People. 

Ninth Edition. i2mo, 468 pages $1.50 

Christian Believing and Living. 

Twenty-five Sermons. Sixth Edition, nmo, 528 pages $1.50 

Helps to a Holy Lent. 

Third Edition. i6mo, 208 pages $1 .00 

A rich treasury, filled with beautiful, living thoughts, the power and at- 
traction of which will be confessed by all who give the work due examination. — 
Churchman. 

Profitable devotional reading for any time, as well as for Lent.— Standard 
of the Cross. 

New Helps to a Holy Lent. 

x6mo, 228 pages $1.25 

The Common Things of Divine Service. 

Hints to young clergymen, wardens, vestrymen, clerks, sextons, choirs and 
congregations. Paper, 58 pages $0.10 

Steps to a Living Faith. 

Being Letters to an Indifferent Believer. A Tract for Parish Use. Paper, 

25 cents; cloth $0.50 

We know nothing in the same compass which contains more valuable and 

suggestive thoughts for an indifferent believer. In a tract of about a hundred 

pages, the author has clearly described the various steps from a lifeless belief to 

a living, working faith. — Our Church Work. 

Christ and the World. 

Secularism the Enemy of the Church. Paper, 25 cents; cloth $0.50 

Our Lord's Parables. 

Lessons for the Instruction of Children in the Christian Life $0.30 

Elim; or, Hymns of Holy Refreshment. 

Edited by Bishop Huntington. Third Edition, in new form %x .25 

Poems of the choicest power, depth, tenderness, and spiritual beauty. — Church 
yournal. 

Our Church and Her Services. 

By the Rt. Rev. Ashton Oxenden, D.D. Adapted to the Services of the 
Prot. Epis. Church in the United States by Bishop Huntington. Paper, 
25 cents ; cloth $0 . 75 

The Rock of Ages ; 

Or, Scripture Testimony to the One Eternal Godhead of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. By the Rev. Edward H. Bickersteth. 
With an introduction by Bishop^ Huntington. New Edition. i2mo $1.25 

E. P. BUTTON & CO., Publishers, New York. 



A New Testament Commentary 

FOR ENGLISH READERS. 
Edited by C. J. ELLICOTT, D.D. 

Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. 



VOLUME I., Quarto, 563 pages. Price, $6.00. (Third Edition.) Contains:— 
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW, ST. MARK, and ST. 

LUKE. By the Rev. E. H. Plumptre, D.D., Vicar of Bickley, Professor of 

Divinity in King's College, London. 
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. By the Rev. H. W. Watkins, 

M. A., Professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy at King's College, London. 

and Warden of St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. 

VOLUME II., Quarto, 484 pages. Price, $6.00. Contains:— 
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By the Rev. E. H. Plumptre, D.D. 
ROMANS. By the Rev. W. Sanday, M.A., D.D., Principal of Hatfield Hall, 

Durham. 

CORINTHIANS I. By the Rev. T. Teignmouth Shore, M.A., Incumbent of 
Berkeley Chapel, Mayfair, Hon. Chaplain to the Queen. 

CORINTHIANS II. By the Rev. E. H. Plumptre, D.D. 

GALATIANS. By the Rev. W. Sanday, M.A., D.D. 
VOLUME III., Quarto. Price, $6.00. Contains:— 

EPHESIANS, PHILIPPIANS, COLOSSIANS, and PHILEMON. By the 
Rev. Alfred Barry, D.D., Principal of King's College, London, and Canon of 
Worcester Cathedral. 

THESSALONIANS I. and II., ST. PETER I. and II., and ST. JUDE. 
By the Rev. A. J. Mason, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Ex- 
amining Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Truro. 

TIMOTHY I. and II., and TITUS. By the Rev. H. D. M. Spence, M.A., 
Hon. Canon of Gloucester Cathedral, and Vicar of St. Pancras. 

HEBREWS. By the Rev. W. F. Moulton, D.D., Principal of the Wesleyan Col- 
lege. The Leys, Cambridge. 

ST. JAMES. By the Rev. E. G. Punchard, M.A., Fellow of St. Augustine's 
College, Canterbury. 

ST. JOHN, EPISTLES I., II., and III. By the Rev. W. M. Sinclair, M.A., 
Resident Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of London. 

THE REVELATION. By the Rev. W. Boyd Carpenter, M.A., Vicar of St. 
James', Holloway. 

The 3 Volumes in Strong Box, $18.00, with a discount to Clergymen and Students 



The present Commentary may in many respects claim to be considered as new 
in its design and construction, and as an attempt to supply a need which has been 
long and seriously felt by meditative readers of God's Holy Word. * * * 

" These, then, are the two broad classes of readers— those who doubt the full 
authority of Scripture, but would rejoice to have those doubts dissipated, and that 
much larger class that (by God's blessing) doubt not, but desire more fully to 
realize and to understand : these are the two classes who have been ever present to 
the thoughts of the writers of this Commentary, and for whom especially they have 
undertaken this work."— From the Preface by Bishop Ellicott, 

"This is a work by thorough scholars and careful exegetes, intended for the use 
of those unable to read the sacred text in its original languages, and to put them in 
possession of its exact sense, at the same time carefully maintaining that higher 
exegesis than any mere grammatical analysis can supply— the development and ex- 
hibition of the inner life and meaning of the sacred writers. ' ' — British Quarterly 
Review. 

m 4 For the first time it Is possible now to answer promptly and without qualifica . 
tion the question every minister has asked him from time to time, What Com- 
mentary do you recommend ? "—Rev. Win. R. Huntington, D.D. 

tvvi 11 lS j most * nterest * n g volume, and promises invaluable help to the classes of 
Bible students for whom it is intended, help which I do not know how they can 
gain elsewhere."—/?<?z/. Phillips Brooks, D.D. 

B. P. DUTTON & CO., Publishers, New York. 



THE NEW BIBLE COMMENTARY. 



"In republishing Bishop Ellicott's commentary, E. P. Dutton & Co. have done a 
service that will be recognized at once, but more and more appreciated in the future. 
It is a service not only to the promotion of scriptural knowledge in the intelligent 
class of our laymen and the families in our congregations, but to the minds and 
teachings of the many clergymen among us who are not able to place in their 
own libraries the more costly and elaborate exegetical works. We began to examine 
the work from curiosity, but have found as we went on that the two accomplished 
and discriminating critics, Dr. Plumptre and Prof. Watkins, who have done the 
greater part of the labor thus far, have furnished so much fresh matter and have so 
compactly and clearly presented the results of recent inquiry on many interesting 
topics, that we have continued reading for edification. Scholars will of course 
seek access to a more ample apparatus; but whoever knows all that is here written 
will be wise in the Word of God. In the notes there is not only explanation of 
the text, but original thought and reverent handling of the things of the Spirit. In 
each introduction and excursus there is a union of generous freedom with sound 
judgment which inspires confidence and rewards study." — Bishop Huntington 
in 4 * The Gospel Messenger." 

M The widespread reputation of Bishop Ellicott as a scholar and commentator 
created a general desire that his new work should as soon as possible be reissued 
on this side of the Atlantic. The reported fact that within a few days of its pub- 
lication in England the whole of the first edition had been disposed of rendered the 
desire for an American edition still more intense. Thanks to the energy and en- 
terprise of Messrs. Dutton & Co., the stately volume is now accessible to all here, 
and, let us add, in a form which leaves nothing to be desired either in print or 
paper. . . . As to the notes themselves, we have no hesitation in saying that in our 
opinion they constitute a marked advance on any similar commentary with which 
we are acquainted. They denote on the part of the authors an honest desire fairly 
to meet all real difficulties; and in order to enable themselves to do so successfully, 
they have freely, but judiciously, drawn upon the various kinds of material which 
are now at the disposal of commentators on the Bible. They have put within 
reach of the merely English reader many of the established results of the later and 
higher biblical criticism; and to do this in a truly reverent manner, and without 
surrendering any essential text or doctrine, was as great a task as it was a great 
desideratum in English." — Churchman. 

44 No commentary ^ designed 4 for English readers ' comes anywhere near it, 
whether for spiritual insight and suggestiveness, or exact scholarship, or wide 
erudition, or resolute handling of difficulties." — Expositor. 

44 1 cannot longer postpone the expression of my thankfulness that such a work 
has been placed within the reach of American as well as English readers, and 
that thinking people, who, though not familiar with the tongue in which the 
Bible was written, are yet abreast of much of the culture and criticism of our time, 
have, in this volume, a work that so wisely and courageously meets that criticism. 
For manliness, candor, and an absolute freedom from all bondage to outworn 
conventions of criticism, this book is above all praise. And yet its tone of rever- 
ence, its clear and positive teaching concerning essential points, is equally praise- 
worthy. It is inexpressibly refreshing to open a commentary which deals with 
living questions in so thoroughly a living way. ... It is a work which every- 
body who reads and thinks ought to possess. It is adapted, with a rare felicity, 
to clear up perplexities, and to strengthen and confirm a devout and rational faith. 
—Rev. H. C. Potter, D.D. 

44 Clergymen will be helped by it in their spiritual understanding of the New 
Testament, but the ordinary reader will find in it, first, that general and candid 
statement of the actual position in which the sacred writings stand, which is neces- 
sary to enable one to approach them with clear intelligence, and, then, that in- 
cisive kind of comment which reaches to the inner and spiritual significance of the 
text, while it does not disregard the usual explanatory apparatus, or hesitate to 
express everything in unpedantic English. The work grows upon one, and there 
is nothing in it which can be spared, or which any one can well pass by. For the 
average student of Scripture it is decidedly the best work of the kind which we 
have." — N. Y. Times. 



E. P. DUTTON & CO., 



Publishers, 



New York, 



The Annotated Bible, 

Being a Household Commentary upon the Holy Scriptures, comprehending the 
results of Modern Discovery and Criticism. By the Rev. John Henry Blunt, 
M.A., F.S.A., Editor of "The Annotated Book of Common Prayer,' 1 "The 
Dictionary of Theology," &c, &c. 3 vols -> with Maps, &c. 

This work has been written with the object of providing for educated readers a 
compact intellectual exposition of the Holy Bible, in which they may find such 
explanations and illustrations of the Sacred Books as will meet the necessities of the 
ordinary, as distinguished from the laboriously learned inquirer of the present day. 

Great care has been taken to compress as much information as possible into the 
Annotations by condensed language, by the results of inquiry without adding the 
detail reasonings by which those results have been arrived at, by occupying scarcely 
any space with controversy, and by casting much matter into a tabular form. 

Every book has an Introduction prefixed to it. which gives some account of its 
authorship, date, contents, object, and such other particulars as will put the 
reader in possession of the best modern conclusions on these subjects. The Anno- 
tations are also illustrated by text maps and other engravings when necessary, and 
full-page colored maps are added for the general illustration of Biblical Geography 
from the best authorities. 

The Commentary is preceded by a general Introduction, which contains chap- 
ters on the Literary History of the Bible (illustrated by several fac-similes, and by 
specimens of English Bibles from the tenth to the seventeenth centuries), on the 
trustworthiness of the Bible in its existing form, the revelation and inspiration of 
Holy Scripture, the interpretation of Holy Scripture, and the liturgical use of the 
Bible. There are also special Introductions to the New Testament, and the 
Apocrypha. 

VOLUME I. (668 pages.) — Containing the General Introduction, with Text 
and Annotations on the Books from GENESIS to ESTHER. Quarto. . . §10.00 

VOLUME II. (720 pages.)— Completing the OLD TESTAMENT and APO- 
CRYPHA $10.00 

VOLUME III.— Containing the NEW TESTAMENT and GENERAL IN- 
DEX. [In the Press.] 

"Within a certain sphere of exegesis, and for a certain class of readers — those 
described in the preface as the 'educated as distinguished from laborious students ' 
— no more useful commentary exists than this. The explanations of the text are 
clear and to the point, and conservative in their tone. 

kk This work is especially rich in collateral information. Everything which relates 
to the literary history of the Bible is here presented in just the way that the 
student, the seeker after definite knowledge, would desire. The information is 
admirably systematized and condensed to the proper limit. The author has shown 
a rare faculty in saying enough, and not too much. 

"The introduction to this volume, for instance, gives the best and most satis- 
factory explanation we have ever read of what the Bible is, how the Old and the 
New Testaments were formed. The history and specimens of the different 
English versions, as might be expected, is especially interesting. The subject is 
one to which Mr. Blunt has given thorough study. 1 The Trustworthiness of the 
Bible in its Present Form' is a timely chapter, and will serve as a good antidote 
to the growing scepticism on that subject. We would al-o mention the chapter 
on ' The Liturgical Use of the Holy Scripture.' The information given on this 
point will be new to many, and useful to all readers. This commentary is adapted 
to the special needs of our age. It is designed for scholars and for the intellectual 
wants of the times in which we live. 1 ' — Churchman. 

" The reader is neither wearied with an excess of minute criticism, nor disap- 
pointed by the deficiency of exposition which attends upon superficial annotation. 
Scholarship everywhere goes hand in hand with sober judgment. The work is 
characterized by much fresh and original investigation combined with the results of 
all previous scholarship. A literary interest pervades the whole work and brightens 
up the purely critical passages. The author never forgets that he is working in 
the interest of a great constituency, which often comes to such studies wearied by 
many worldly cares, and which, even in dealing with the grandest of compositions, 
needs all the incentives to investigation that are found in a strong, perspicuous 
and winning style. We therefore predict for this invaluable and scholarly work 
a wide popularity." — Literary Churchman* 



Works of the late CANON MOZLEY. 

Essays, Historical and Theological. 

With an Introduction and Memoir of the Author. 2 vols. 8vo $7.00 

"Four of the essays in this second volume are of themselves worth more than 
the price of the whole work. They cannot be read without opening up whole 
tracts of thought that are both new and satisfying, and he who really takes them 
in and digests them will be able for himself to meet and overthrow even the most 
insidious arguments of our modern materialists.' 1 — Chr istian at Work. 

" We find, indeed, on every page evidences of a mental discipline of the highest 
order." — The Nation. 

University Sermons, 

Preached before the University of Oxford, and on various occasions. By the 

Rev. J. B. Mozley, D.D. New edition. i2mo. 318 pages $1.75 

" Must almost make an epoch in the thoughts and history of any one who reads 

them and really takes in what they say." — Lo7idon Times. 

u No sermons since Newman's have shown such power in stating what is obvious 

to any one the moment it is stated, in language which, like the poet's rhythm, all 

can appreciate, and very few can imitate.'" — New York Times. 

Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, 

AND THEIR RELATIONS TO OLD TESTAMENT FAITH. Lectures 
delivered to Graduates of the University of Oxford. By the Rev. J. B. Mozley, 
D.D. 8vo. 311 pages $2.50 

41 The volume will be prized by every earnest student of the Sacred Scriptures, 
and the name of Mozley will mark a new starting-point in the defence of the Old 
Testament." — Christian at Work. 

" This is one of the most remarkable books in the department of theology that 
has appeared in the present generation. Dr. Mozley has won a place in the fore- 
most rank of religious philosophers. His University Sermons deservedly make his 
name prominent as a keen and close thinker. But this volume marks a new era in 
the history of Christian ethics. It is a bold but successful attempt to explain the 
peculiar morality recognized in certain transactions of the Old Testament upon 
rational grounds. For the first time in our experience we have met with a satis- 
factory solution of what all students of the Bible have felt to be a most difficult 
problem. . . We commend Dr. Mozley's work as one which will accomplish in 
our day what Bishop Butler's did in his. It is one which should be read and 
studied by everybody. If it does not clear up much that is now dark to the aver- 
age theological mind, we shall have been mistaken." — Churchman. 

Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine 



of Predestination. 

By the Rev. J. B. Mozley, D.D. New edition. i2mo. 400 pages $^75 

Eight Lectures on the Miracles. 

Being the Bampton Lectures for 1865. By the Rev. J. B. Mozley, D.D. New 
edition. i2mo. 336 pages $2. 00 



"The best modern treatise on the difficult subject to which it is devoted." — 
Christian at Work. 

The Theory of Development. 

A Criticism of Dr. Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. 
i2mo. 232 pages.... $1.50 

E. P. BUTTON <fc CO., Publishers, New York. 



BAMPTON LECTURES FOR 1876. 

The Witness of the Psalms to Christ 
and Christianity. 

By W. Alexander, D.D., Bishop of Deny. New edition, Revised and 
Enlarged » $ 2 -75 

M Rich in learning ; full of suggestion ; flashing sudden light in unexpected 
places ; full-flowing in a tide of deep, clear eloquence ; gemmed with poetic 
touches here and there, at times rising on the high argument to a passionate and 
sustained majesty — the Lectures are a rare refreshment and delight to the reader. 
They will have marked influence upon the sermons of any preacher who studies 
them." — Church Journal. 

" We have not been so delighted with any volume for a long time as with the 
Bampton Lectures for 1876. Our scholarly sense is satisfied and stimulated ; our 
imagination is thrilled with the gems of beauty that lie thickly strewn upon its 
pages ; our heart is kindled afresh under the Divine truth of the Psalter so strik- 
ingly presented to us." — Illustrated Christian Weekly. 

" This is one of the most interesting and valuable of the Bampton Lecture 
Series." — Churchman. 

SECOND EDITION OF 



Notes on Genesis. 

By the late Frederick W. Robertson, M.A. i2mo $1.00 

u They abound in fresh thoughts ; they indicate a study not of commentaries, 
but of the sacred story itself. . . . The author brings out the naturalness of 
actions described in a way that is very impressive." — Churchman. 

" More than almost any preacher, the late Mr. Robertson had the gift of sugges- 
tion. Whether one agree with him or not, he always sets one thinking. This 
power of stimulating thought is present in all he put his hand to." — Church 
Journal. 

" Abounding in the rich, penetrating, striking thought which we always expect 
and never fail to find in the Brighton preacher." — Bishop Huntington y in Gospel 

Messenger. 

l * All readers of the best theologic literature must have this book, which is not a 
large one, except in intellectual and spiritual qualities. Measured by these, it is of 
the largest kind. Oh ! that there were more fruit to fall from the same tree." — 
Congregationalist. 

The Christian Creed, 

ITS THEORY AND PRACTICE. With a Preface on some Present Dangers of 
the English Church, by Stanley Leathes, M.A., Professor of Hebrew, King's 
College, London. i2mo. 388 pages $2.50 

A Series of Discourses on the Articles of the Apostles' Creed, designed with 
special reference to the difficulties of modern thought, but popular and practical in 
treatment. 

A Popular Exposition of the Epistles 
to the Seven Churches in Asia. 

By E. H. Plumptre, D.D., Professor of Theology, King's College, London. 
i2mo. 218 pages $2.00 

E. P. DUTTON & CO., Publishers, New York. 



THE BAMPTON LECTURES FOR 1878. 



Zechariah and his Prophecies, 

ESPECIALLY THE MESSIANIC, CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO 
MODERN CRITICISM. 

With a critically-revised Translation of the original Hebrew, and a Critical 
and Grammatical Commentary on the entire Book. 



BY THE 

Rev. C. H. H. WRIGHT, B.D., M.A., Ph.D. 

Incumbent of St. Mary's, Belfast. 



Author of " The Book of Genesis in Hebrew, with Critical and Grammatical 
Notes. 1 ' " The Book of Ruth in Hebrew and Chaldee, with a Grammar and 
Critical Commentary, etc., etc. 8vo, 688 pages $4-5o 

The body of this work consists chiefly of the Eight Lectures preached before 
the University of Oxford as the Bampton Lectures for the year 1878. The work, 
however, forms a commentary on the entire book, additional chapters having 
been added on those portions which could not be discussed in the University pul- 
pit. The whole is arranged in a series of chapters, in which the opinions of the 
leading English and German critics of the day, whether Orthodox, Rationalistic, 
Jewish, or Roman Catholic, are temperately reviewed. This portion of the work 
is so written as to be adapted for the use of the English student of the Bible, even 
if unacquainted with Hebrew. The introduction, in which the unity of the book 
of Zechariah is defended against modern attacks, while at the same time an honest 
review is given of the objections urged against its integrity by recent eminent 
scholars, with the critical and grammatical commentary, is for the most part in- 
tended for scholars. Reference is made in the grammatical notes to the works of 
Ewald, Gesenius, Olshausen, Bottcher, Kalisch, Driver, etc. 

Sludies on the New Testament. 

By F. Godet, d.d., Professor of Theology, Neuchatel. Contents : I. The Origin 
of the Four Gospels. II. Jesus Christ. III. The Work of Jesus Christ. IV. 
The Four Principal Apostles. V. The Apocalypse. Edited by Rev. W. H. 
Lyttelton, m.a. Small 8 vo, 408 pages. $2.25. 

"We commend this very thoughtful, suggestive, and artistic volume to our read- 
ers." — British Quarterly Review. 

M Unquestionably, M. Godet is one of the first, if not the very first, of contem- 
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" These studies cover the whole of the New Testament. It would be hard to 
find a book more striking, interesting, and instructive, and I would earnestly advise 
all students of the New Testament to possess themselves of it." — The Expositor. 

The Sayings of the Great Forty Days, 

Between the Resurrection and Ascension, regarded as the Outlines of the King- 
dom of God. In Five Discourses. With an Examination of Dr. Newman's 
Theory of Development. By George Mobekly, d.c.l., Bishop of Salisbury. 
Fourth edition, crown 8vo. $2.00. 

"We know of no better reading for the season on which we are now entering 
than this volume." — Churchman. 

£• P. BUTTON & CO., Publishers, New York. 



By the Rev. FREDERICK W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., 

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Eternal Hope. 

Sermons on Eternal Punishment. Preached in Westminster Abbey, London, 



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The Life of Christ. 

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2 vols., 8vo, with Maps, Notes, and Appendix, large print, cloth 5.00 

2 vols., 8vo, half calf 10.00 



44 The great value of the book consists in the connected view it presents of the 
tragedy of the Gospels, and the facility it affords to all classes, learned or un- 
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with grace of narration, and it will acquaint them with fresh sources of informa- 
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"Dr. Farrar may certainly be congratulated upon a literary success to which 
the annals of English theology present no parallel. . . It is impossible, in the space 
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minds of friendly or hostile listeners." — Quarterly Review, 

The Silence and the Voices of God. 

With other Sermons. i2mo. 237 pages.. $1.00 

" In the Days of thy Youth." 

Sermons on Practical Subjects, preached at Marlborough College from 1871 to 
1876. By the Rev. Frederick W„ Farrar, D.D. 39 sermons, 414 pages. .$2.00 
44 They bear upon school life, and are the fruit of rich experience, a sincere love 
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Language and Languages : 

Being "Chapters on Language" and 41 Families of Speech." i2mo. 431 pages. $2.50 
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The College Library. 

Jric ; or, Little by Little. A Tale of Roslyn School. St. Winifred ; or, The 
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44 Possess all the charm which made 4 School Days at Rugby ' so popular, while 
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